As a childcare provider, it is an understatement to say that your job demands are physical! Your days are spent bending, lifting, lowering, participating in active play, and moving in other ways as you respond to children’s needs.

You probably have days when you find yourself getting out of bed slowly and carefully, aching throughout the day’s work, and completely fatigued and sore at the end of the day. This scenario is likely based on a combination of factors, including your age, gender, job, and physical conditioning level.

You cannot change some factors such as age, but you can become more physically fit. When establishing a fitness plan that works for you, remember to include flexibility into your exercise activities.

What is Flexibility?

Flexibility is the ability or the measure of a joint to move through a full range of motion. Maintaining flexibility has numerous benefits such as decreasing muscle stiffness, increasing joint mobility, enhancing muscular coordination, decreasing injury risk, and improving blood circulation.

Flexibility and range of motion will vary among individuals. You may not kick as high as a cheerleader or be able to reach a zipper along your back. This is because the ability to enhance flexibility is impacted by several factors including age, sex, heredity, posture, and diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis.

Although these limitations may exist, you can still improve your flexibility and general fitness with training. Many daily movements originate from the spine so incorporate hip, lower back, and spinal range of motion into flexibility training programs.

This region is not only considered to be the primary locomotive of human movement, but it also is directly related to the types of movements that childcare providers use in daily tasks. Before you begin any exercise program, it is recommended that you seek medical clearance from your doctor.

Lower Back and Spinal Flexibility

To ensure optimal physical mobility, all joints should be included in a flexibility program. However, due to the particular movements included in a childcare provider’s daily activities such as bending, lifting, and lowering, this flexibility exercise prescription focuses on the hip and low back joints and spinal range of motion.

Step 1: Warm-up The purpose of the warm-up is to increase muscle temperature which helps to make the muscles loose, supple, and pliable and, therefore, less prone to injury.

The warm-up should consist of 5-10 minutes of low-intensity, large muscle activity. Suggested warm-up activities include brisk walking, jogging, marching in place, cycling, or jump roping.

Step 2: Static Stretching The purpose of the static stretch is to perform a slow, controlled stretch, using stretches such as those described below. Progress to a greater range of motion with each repetition.

This progression should stop at a point where you feel tightness without discomfort or pain. In the beginning stages of your flexibility training program, strive to hold each stretch for 15-30 seconds.

Do not “bounce” during your stretch; bouncing can cause injury. As you progress in your training program, hold each stretch for 30-90 seconds. Perform 2-4 repetitions for each stretch.

Stretches for Hip and Low Back Joints

Stretch 1: Sitting Toe-Touch To begin, sit on the floor. Place both legs together, flat to the floor, and position them directly in front of your body.

Your upper body should be positioned upright with good posture. Your spine should not bend at anytime during the stretch.

Slowly move your upper body down to meet the top of your legs. Continue this movement until you reach a point of tension--not discomfort or pain.

This is the desired stretch position. This helps stretch the low back and hamstrings, the muscle group located on the back of the upper leg.

Stretch 2: Straddle or Spread Eagle Toe-Touch Sit on the floor. Legs will be flat to the floor and in an open position angled in front of your body. Your upper body should be positioned upright with good posture; again, the spine should not bend during the stretch. You can perform three different movements to stretch your low back, hamstrings, and hip adductors (the muscle group located on the inner portion of the thigh).

For the first movement, slowly move your upper body down to meet the floor space centered between your legs. Continue this movement until you reach a point of tension, not discomfort or pain. This is the desired stretch position.

For the second and third movements, slowly move your upper body down to meet the right (movement two) and left (movement three) leg. The upper body should be positioned downward to meet each leg individually. This will help stretch the low back, hamstrings, and hip adductors.

Christina L. L. Martin, Ph.D. and Tyler D. Martin, M.S., CSCS, Dept. of Sport and Fitness Management, Troy University

Internet Resources

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00310

Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/HQ01447