ITA. I nearly always end up having to spend time doing my own psoas, ankle/tibialis, shin, and rhomboid stretches. I think any workout that utilizes step ought to have tibialis stretching afterwards.
I know exactly what you mean. I rarely do the stretch routine done at the vast majority of most workouts, or at least I'll add on my own stretches. The older I get, the more time that needs to be, too. A four-minute stretch after a workout was fine at eighteen. At age 35, an hour-long workout is going to get a ten-minute stretch...easily.
Barefoot running and barefoot workouts have really taken off, in part due to the injuries and weak foot muscles that many athletic shoes can help create in many regular exercisers. Many dancers and Pilates classes believe firmly in doing plenty of lower leg, ankle, and foot work. Many other athletes do physical therapy and other modalities where the shins, ankles and/or feet get specific strengtheners and stretches (often due to injuries, sometimes not even directly in those areas). Yet almost all mainstream aerobics, strength-training, or other workouts based upon any sort of hybrid ignore this work (or it's an extreme afterthought). It's as if the feet and ankles hardly exist in this realm, except to help us stand on. I guess because these sorts of exercises aren't majorly sweat-inducing and calorie-burning they can be overlooked easily, but I simply don't think it's a good idea to do so long-term. I remember the first time I did a Jennifer Kries (The Method) workout,
Dance to Fitness, I was AMAZED at how tired my feet got with her simple warm-up exercises. They looked very simple, but I sure was humbled when I saw how weak and inflexible my ankles and feet truly were. After all, I had been doing an hour of aerobics and/or weight-training a day for months, was at that time in my late teens, and thought I was fit as I could be. Then I remembered the knock knees I had in childhood, my very easily-twisted ankles as a teen, and the severe foot pain which started at age 16 when I began working in retail (since I spent long hours standing in place). That was when I got clued into how imperative it is to work on these seemingly insignificant areas.
At my age and with my injury history, I'm definitely willing to scale down the cardio or weights to 30 or 40 minutes per workout in order to fit 10-20 minutes of stretching, foam-rolling, and/or PT exercises a day. On the upside, when I began doing work on strengthening and stretching my feet, ankles, hip flexors, and lower leg muscles I also saw an increase in athletic performance. Greater squat depth, deeper and less wobbly lunges, and the ability to do plyometric jumps for the first time pain-free. My next goal is to add in more rotator cuff and wrist work (both weights and stretching). I want to keep working out for many years to come, but I believe it'll take a moderate, holistic approach to training for this to be my reality. This is partly why I hope Cathe will consider doing a series or at least a couple of workouts for those that who are out-of-shape, older exercisers who've had to cut back on the high-impact, heavy-weight work, or those that have severe osteoarthritis or other issues which make exercising feel quite painful. Aren't these the exercisers that need to make regular movement a part of life more than anyone? Cathe has designed exciting, cutting-edge, unique programs for a wide range of exercisers before. I don't see any reason why she couldn't just as enthusiastically inspire and train the above-mentioned groups in a different sort of series. Even for those of us still blessed with the ability to often do hardcore cardio and weightlifting work, there is no reason why a series like this couldn't be worked into
our routines, too. Most of us will have times when we're just getting back to exercise after a serious illness or a surgery that required time off of exercising, periods of post-injury recovery periods where the hardcore stuff is out, or simply the need get in more work with foam-rolling, stretching, and small-muscle training. Cathe can make this type of work fun, as opposed to the drudgery or boredom it can often feel like.
