Though I kept up with light workouts and yoga while pregnant, something that completely suffered was my flexibility. It likely had to do with a growing bebe being in the way of touching my toes and the like, but by the end of the pregnancy, I felt pretty stiff. Other than getting back to my HIIT workouts, I’m ecstatic to feel flexible again – and have already started working on it under doctor supervision.

Since I know a lot of people struggle with being as limber as we’d like, I wanted to propose a crazy simple way to do so: stretch before bed. Give yourself 10 minutes to turn down the lights and to stretch out your body after a long day on your feet. Play light music or even a meditation app if you’d like, and slowly move your body through stretches that feel best.

Developing a small healthy change like this only takes a couple weeks to really get down, and you’ll notice an increased flexibility in no time. Seriously, it doesn’t take hours of yoga a day to notice your body change. And nonetheless, stretching out the kinks before climbing into bed is heavenly on its own!

If you have sleep issues or a hard time turning off at night, certain poses can even help promote sleep. If you’re interested – or simply don’t know where to start in terms of nighttime stretching, I found this article and its poses to be helpful.

Hopefully you can also fit yoga or other stretch-happy exercises into your life, but at the least, this small practice will make your body a lot happier. As we age, stretching helps to prevent injury – so it’s a good idea to start ASAP – like this week!

PS, if you’re extremely stiff, I’ve found this strap to be life-changing in terms of feeling a stretch.

Enjoy!