Here’s why I don’t wear pajamas. The other day my brother-in-law, let’s call him “Ken”, was putting his pajamas on and twisted his back. He hurt himself so badly he could barely walk for a couple of days. He’s ok now but obviously he’ll think twice before wearing pajamas again. Or maybe he’ll just start doing some stretches before getting ready for bed.

Speaking of stretching, a lot of people have completely the wrong idea about stretching. They think that you should stretch before you exercise, to loosen up the muscles and get your body ready for activity. The truth is, and there’s science to back me up here, that you should warm-up before you exercise but only stretch afterward.

Bad stretch

Stretching before running

Now, the latest piece of research in this area says that stretching before you run may have some really unexpected, and not desirable, results. In fact, the researchers say that distance runners who stretch before setting out may not be able to run as far as people who don’t stretch, but they’ll also expend more energy doing it.

The study, in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning, involved ten college distance runners who did two 60 minute runs on a treadmill; one run was after a 16 minute series of static stretches, the other run was without any stretching. At the beginning of each session the athletes were told to run as far as possible, but they weren’t able to see how far they had run or what speed they were running at, they simply had to go as far and as fast as they felt comfortable doing.

Shorter distance, greater effort

When the athletes stretched they ran 3.4 percent less than when they ran without stretching. What was just as interesting was that they burned 5 percent more calories when they ran after stretching than when they ran without. So, they ran less but burned up more energy.

Now, if your goal is to lose weight that’s great. But if you are a collegiate athlete the odds are that you are already pretty thin – not to say skinny – so you are not trying to shed pounds, you are trying to shave seconds off your time. Stretching is not going to help you.

So. To recap. If you are exercising warm-up first, stretch afterward. That’s it. Simple eh.

Unless you are putting your pajamas on. Then you might want to do some loosening up moves just to be on the safe side.

A woman I work with – let’s call her Carolyn, because that’s her name – recently underwent back surgery. She says since the surgery she’s been in some pain, not just in her back but pretty much throughout her body. At first she thought it was just the usual recovery process, but as the pain persisted she did what many people do today, she went online and found out what was going on.

Carolyn found that part of the problem was that her body was stressed from years of living with a bad back, and from the surgery to repair it. Fortunately she didn’t just find out what the problem was, she also found out the solution. Stretching. Her muscles were taut and tight, her tendons and ligaments rigid. So that evening she did some very gentle stretching, nothing wild, and that night she slept like a log, and woke up the next morning feeling relaxed and refreshed and revived.

What Carolyn did wasn’t a miracle. It didn’t involve any medications or an elaborate therapy program. All she did was stretch. She’s been doing it every day since then, a bit at a time, in the morning, in the evening, even in the office during the day. And she says it’s given her a spring in her step and a new sense of energy.

Carolyn’s experience is a reminder that small changes can have a big impact. Even something as simple as gentle stretching helped her sleep better, feel better, think better. Not a bad return on such a small investment.

It’s not just confined to exercise or activity either. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that if Americans reduced their consumption of salt, even just a little – and by a little I mean just half a teaspoon a day -  they could reduce their risk of heart disease, stroke or heart attacks as much as if they stopped smoking or cut their cholesterol level.

Half a teaspoon a day. That’s tiny. And you get to live longer. Who could say no to that.

It’s important to remember these details as we reach the end of January and a lot of people’s New Year’s Resolutions are either already history or are wobbling precariously. Maybe you started out trying too much, or taking on too many challenges. So this is a good time to refine your resolution. Don’t dump it, just modify it. By now you have a good idea of what is reasonable, what is practical, what is achievable.

Scaling back your overly ambitious plan is not failure it’s smart. What you are doing is setting yourself up for long-term success by creating a realistic plan, one that fits your lifestyle and keeps you heading towards your goal.

Remember, you didn’t get overweight overnight, nor are you going to get slim and trim by the end of the month or even the year. It takes time. But it can be done. As long as you do it bit by bit.

Carolyn’s back problems didn’t happen with one single incident, and they didn’t disappear with her surgery. But what she has found is that by taking things into her own hands and adding something as simple as stretching into her daily routine she has set herself on the path to recovery, to a more active, more engaged, healthier life.

And that’s something we could all live with.

When I was a kid growing up in London one of my favorite places to visit was the Tower of London, that started out as the home of the King of England but ended up as his or her prison of choice. One of my favorite places in the Tower was St. Catherine’s Tower. Now that’s not because of any religious attachment I had to St. Catherine. No, it’s because that’s where they kept all the torture equipment.

Hey, I was a boy, what do you expect, enlightenment!

Anyway, I was fascinated by all the things they used to torture people. There was the “Bride’s scold”, an iron mask with a bit to put in the person’s mouth. There was the “Iron Maiden” (notice how women seem to be a recurring theme here!) which was a kind of metal body-shaped frame that you could lock someone in; and as you closed the door, spikes on the inside of the frame were pushed into the prisoner’s body. A medieval form of acupuncture, without the therapeutic benefits if you like!

You could see how all that would seem fascinating to a kid. OK, well, maybe you can’t, but I thought it was cool.

However,  my favorite was the “Rack”. I was always intrigued by how huge and elaborate a device it seemed, and wondered how it would feel to be pulled and stretched to the point where you felt you were going to be ripped apart.

I just found out. I took a yoga class.

This wasn’t your standard yoga class. This one focused on specific exercises and kept working you deeper and deeper into the pose until you could do it. Or in my case until you fell over backwards, sideways, or whichever way my body decided offered the line of least resistance.

It was bloody awful. My arms were like rubber, my thighs burned, at one point my ribs and chest seemed to get locked in a spasm as if to say “enough with this.”

But here’s the really weird thing. Afterwards I felt great. I felt as if I had elongated stuff that had been squished. That my muscles and tendons and ligaments were looser and more limber than they had been after months of exercises that compressed them.

In short, to quote James Brown, “I feel good”   But then, I knew that I would.

And it made me appreciate once again just how important flexibility is to a balanced exercise program. You can do aerobics until your resting heart rate is lower than Glenn Beck’s IQ. You can lift weights until your ears have muscles. But unless you add in some stretching and flexibility, it’s not really a fully balanced program.

Yoga is great on so many levels – mental as well as physical – but it’s not for everyone. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find other ways to stretch. There are many different stretches you can do that don’t come with names like “Downward Facing dog” or “Assanupadowna” (OK I made that last one up but it sounds legitimate doesn’t it) and they all do basically the same thing, they get your body in balance.

But in case you aren’t sure how to stretch or, more importantly, how to stretch safely, here’s some tips on a few great ways to really help release your muscles.

You probably won’t thank me for this (and believe me, I don’t thank me for this) but you might be grateful for it.

Last week I did something I rarely do. I took my own advice. It was quite illuminating. I found it’s much easier to give advice than to take it.

You know how I’m always telling people to mix things up, that when it comes to exercise variety is a critical ingredient. Trying different exercises not only works different muscles in different ways it also keeps your metabolism from getting lazy.

So, last week I went swimming. I haven’t done that in years. Sure I’ve mucked around in pools on vacation but it’s been at least 5 years since I got into a pool to do laps. And boy did it show.

After less than 25 minutes I looked like one of those bedraggled runners at the end of a long, exhausting marathon, staggering, bandy-legged towards the finish line, their only goal just to get there. At least, that’s how it felt.

I was surprised how hard it was, but I shouldn’t have been. Swimming is one of the most complete exercises you can do, working every muscle group, all at the same time. You arms and your legs and your core and your hips and back are all working, hopefully together, to power you through the water. So, it’s no wonder my heart and lungs were pounding and pumping like crazy.

Swimming is a great cardiovascular workout. But it’s also good because, unlike most of the other sports I do, this one stretches you out and doesn’t put a huge amount of strain on your joints. In squash or running you are pounding down on your muscles. In swimming you are stretching them out so that by the end – once you have caught your breath – you feel really great.

So, if you’ve been running a lot and your knees or joints are beginning to feel the strain of it, skip doing laps around the track and try a few laps in the pool. It will make a terrific change of pace and give your body a bit of a break too.

I don’t know if the experience will make me want to take my own advice more often, but it certainly makes me want to swim more often.