The Daily Flex, 15min a day to increase your wellbeing by 100%!

Did you know that we offer a tailored Yoga-Stretch mobility program to all our CCF members?

The Daily Flex is something that we developed during the Lockdown in April 2020 and since then it's been a part of our daily training programs, where you can get the right dose of flexibility training done in just 15min - and you can literally do it ANYWHERE!

Our members can easily find the Daily Flex in their BTWB-app and follow along in the poses of the day.

How does it work, and what does "tailored to our program" mean?

The Daily Flex program is different each day and the poses/stretches chosen are done so to help work on muscles/joints that are also used in the CCF Main WOD in our classes each day. This means that the stretching done is directly beneficial to help either as preparation or as a cool down after your workout - but of course it's also a perfect way to just get some mobility in if you're having a rest day from the box!
The Coaches demonstrate the poses in a follow along video which is easy to view from your phone via BTWB-app (you can even use the YouTube video as a show in screen version where you can use your phone while you're stretching if you really want to). 
And we also show you modified versions of the positions if your flexibility doesn't allow you to get into all of them just yet.

What's the physical benefits of stretching/mobility work?

Most people "know that they should stretch more" but let's give you some more motivation to take some action and spend as little as 15min a day on some self-care that can carry over to so many other areas of life:

• Of course: increase range of motion = allow you get into better positions in your training, which leads to:
• Increased performance, as you will easier be hitting the required positions of the movements you do in the gym, and you can then also use the muscles intended even better!
• A better connection with muscles, some of our poses are more "active" than others and in those you are actually both strengthening your body and creating a better connection between your brain and the muscles.
• Reduce injury risk, due to the above your body can handle challenging positions better and instead of "working against it self" in for instance a heavy squat it can go to the right positions smoothly and thus avoid injury.
• Help recovery when injured, injuries often (not always) happen due to imbalances in your body so by stretching for better positions you can also create better balance and "release" tightness that might be creating the pain/niggles/injuries.
• VERY efficient cool down, did you know that by stretching as little as 5-10min after a session you can speed up your recovery by 4 hours!?

And mental wellbeing?

It's not really news to most that a short meditation each day can help a lot with your mindset, but how many of us actually takes that time out of their day..? With the Daily Flex you have an excellent tool to actually slow down for 15min per day and really focus on your positive mindset.
We even "program" each Daily Flex session to finish with 1-5min of Positivity Meditation where you simply find a relaxing pose and focus on something good that you have done/are about to do each day - this can have a HUGE benefit on how you feel.

Stretch, stretch, relax...

Other positive psychological effects from stretching:

• FOCUS. These 15min of stretching often creates a laser sharp focus as your mind can slow down enough to find exactly that: focus in a world otherwise filled with loads of distractions.
• Feeling generally good. Yes, that's a bit wishy washy but the truth is that your body rewards you with a feel-good effect when you do something that's good for it, tell us that you DON'T feel better after a 15min stretch and we'll be surprised.
• Happiness from not being in pain. A bit more to the point: if you are always walking around with back pain due to tight hips, or if your aches doesn't allow you to sleep properly how "happy" are you really on a regular day? By creating a more flexible body you can reduce aches and pains and thus increase your happiness!

WHEN should I do the Daily Flex?

As mentioned before there are some benefits to use a stretch as cool down in terms of speeding up recovery after a workout, BUT the truth is that you can do the Daily Flex ANY TIME.

Choose what fits your lifestyle best:

• Daily Flex first thing in the morning: Coach Chris is a big fan of this and himself hits the Daily Flex every morning at 5am as that sets his body and mind up for success. 
• Daily Flex BEFORE a WOD to move better: Yes, there are some studies showing that stretching before a workout COULD limit your muscle strength by a couple of %, but in our opinion that gets overruled by you getting into a better position if you need to stretch before your session to do so.. Remember, the poses are directly correlated to the movements in the WOD so this can help you squat better or allow your shoulders to feel better when kipping on the bar as an example.
• Daily Flex AFTER a WOD to recover: As you can read above there are many benefits of this, one is also that the muscles are now warm and it might allow you to get even deeper into the poses (be careful to not overdo it though).
• Daily Flex last thing at night: This can be a great way to calm down the mind before sleep, and there are also studies showing that a stretch before bedtime sends the right hormones out to the muscles to relax and recover even more during the sleep!

We think you should try to find the time that is best suited for you. If you for instance need to get out of the box right after your WOD to go home and cook dinner for your family we understand completely that getting it done right after the class is not doable - if so you should rather choose one of the other times and still reap the benefits from increasing your mobility. Simply put: any time is better than not at all.

PS. At our boxes you can always use the areas designated to do it right after class!

Grab a few friends, jump on the WiFi, log into BTWB, and simply follow along while using a space/stretch mat designated for this purpose - we look forward to seeing the more flexible and thus stronger & healthier version of yourself in 2021!