38: Touch my toes

My hamstrings are tighter than a bulls bum in fly season, but that's not going to stop me from touching my toes!

Playing soccer I never properly stretched. Running back to defend was painful enough, why would I stretch too? Thankfully I never injured myself, but I was super inflexible. When I first attempted this challenge there was about half a metre between my fingers and my toes. I still had a long way to go.

I thought it would be easy, one solid month of stretching and I would get there. How wrong I was...

I have been taking boxing classes for most of this year at the Happy Melon studio. After each class I stretch my hamstrings. This helped, but I reached a critical point where my body could not physically stretch anymore. Stretching two or three times a week clearly wasn't going to be enough, so while I was studying in Malaysia, I made a genuine effort to stretch for 5 minutes every day. My progress accelerated drastically, but I never managed to touch my toes. Afterwards I traveled to Japan and South Korea and lost continuity, which set my progress back.

Even though I arrived home nearly 3 months ago, it was only today that I accomplished this task. I continued to stretch most mornings in the shower and after every boxing class (three times a week). My girlfriend's mum Michelle, a yoga instructor, recommended that I concentrate on stretching from my hips rather than reaching for my toes. Today I managed to just reach the tips of my toes for a full five seconds. Enough for me to tick off this Challenge =.

Massive shoutout to my boxing instructor Dylan, who pushed me after every session to stretch just that little bit further...

...but seriously, could you hurry and take the photo already!