Bob Anderson’s Stretching: Stretching My Limits By Brian Simpson

I had this book sitting on my bookshelf, under heaps of junk since my martial arts days, done when at the high school I was at, there were karate lessons for staff, taught by a few staff member fanatics. He decided, rightly so, that I needed to do more stretching, Being stiff as an iced up board,  and he is still right. So, I stretched down and  dug out this book, the bible of stretching. Bob Anderson, Stretching, (Shelter Publications, 1980). At the time that book had sold over 400,000 copies, and that was over 40 years ago. Here is the latest edition from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Stretching-30th-Anniversary-Bob-Anderson/dp/0936070463

So, I was keen to find exercises for stretch my quads, and maybe my hamstrings, which I figure were also tight giving me a peg leg walk.

I learnt more from this book that from my cheap physio sections. Maybe if I had more money, and went to a $100 plus physio section I would have got more, but, it is what it is. I found that stretching should be gentle, just going to the level of tension, not pain, holding for maybe 20 seconds, then relaxing. Some videos recommend muscle massage at this point, to keep the muscles from tensing up.

The stretches for the legs in the Anderson book, had a number of stretches with the knees bent underneath you, and a warning was given not to do this if one has knees problems. As so many of us do, I think only the safe exercises should have been put in. But, with a bit of thinking, the exercises can be modified to deal with the knee issue. I sat down with a bit of paper and played around with angles, at one point even using the differential calculus, and came up with a program suitable for an old guy like me. So, now I am off; wish me luck! I have only another 3 months of rehabilitation to do! And, I may not be a cripple for life!