How to Finally Touch Your Toes, Maybe Even Today

I tried it. At the beginning, I was able to juuust barely get my fingertips to my toes. By the end, I had fingers fully on the floor, and I could get my palms down with just a slight softening of the knees.

It’s a bit of a parlor trick; I didn’t physically lengthen my muscles in three minutes, nor will my newfound mobility be permanent. (It fades within minutes to hours, depending on what you do with your body in that time.) But it provides a glimpse of what is possible.

The video asks you to squeeze your knees together, with a ball or block in between your legs. (I used a firm throw pillow.) If you’ve ever been in a yoga class where the instructor asks you to “activate your inner thighs,” you’ll know the motion. Propping up your toes or your heels will also change which muscles you’re using to stand there bent over.

These actions help you stretch through a principle called reciprocal inhibition, in which your body will relax one muscle to let another muscle contract. For example, if you pull your quads tight, that helps your hamstrings relax. (It’s the same mechanism that lets you release a calf cramp by contracting the muscle on the front of your shin.)

Simply gaining those few inches of mobility felt like a hell of a breakthrough. I know that lasting flexibility will take more work to achieve, but that was a fun and encouraging start. If you’ve never been able to touch your toes, give this video a try. And tune in next week, when I’ll give my first update on how my full stretching routine is working out.