Kenny brings up an interesting point in his post for today: stretching and how it pertains to AS. While I may not be the foremost expert on this disease, I’ve been living with it for much of my life . . . and most of that time undiagnosed. Honestly, prior to diagnosis and treatment –regardless of the ridiculous amount of over the counter medication I took — it was stretching that helped me cope with the pain the most. I would get up an hour early before work or school and stretch in my bed before I even tried to stand up (often a nearly impossible task without stretching). While there are lots of thoughts on stretching as it pertains to AS (Google search here for the lazy), my favorite stretch looks like this:
Glut Stretch
Start by lying on your back with you right leg raised to a 90 degree angle. Place the left foot onto the front of the right knee, using your right hand to hold the leg. As you feel your Glut start to stretch a bit, use the left hand to push onto the front of the left knee extending your elbow. Breath into this stretch and stay as relaxed as possible. Once you have stretched your right glut, switch legs to stretch the left side.
There is an alternate way to accomplish this by sitting on the edge of your bed with your feet on the floor. Start by putting your right foot on top of your left knee. Then, with your back straight, lean forward until you start feeling the stretch. Again, breath into the stretch and stay relaxed. Repeat with the left leg.
So why all this discussion about glut stretching when it’s our backs that hurt? Well, since the glut, quad and hamstring muscles are so big, I got it into my mind early on that keeping that muscle group loose would be a good idea. In the next edition of Warner on Stretching, I’ll discuss my favorite quad and hamstring stretches, and I may even post a pic of how insanely flexible I am. I know, don’t get too excited. 
Until next time my friends . . . Post some comments and tell us about your favorite stretches. If you can, add a link to a picture that shows the stretch.
Hope ya’ll have a great weekend!
Nice work Warner – Definitely post up your pics of YOU stetching, will be interesting to see how flexible its possible to keep ourselves. I stretch alot but concentrate more on my hamstrings and lower back. It all helps!
I Also amaze people with my flexibility which makes it so much harder to explain to them how stiff and tense I usually am. I actually believe all the stretching I was doing was making my symptoms worse. Something about thoroughly relaxing all of my stabilizing muscles early in the morning makes me feel week and lazy the rest of the day. I instead do as much physical work through out the day as possible and exercise nearly everyday to build up my strength and energy.