Page 11 of Body Check

“Seriously, these are gentle, easy movements. We honestly should have started with a warmup,” Dakota said, a frown appearing on his smooth forehead. “I don’t like static stretches on cold muscles.”

“I don’t really feel much,” Gavin pointed out.

“That’s normal. Now, with your right arm by your side, lift your hand, bending only at the wrist, so your hand is at a ninety-degree angle to your thigh.”

Gavin did—and yelped.

Dakota smirked. “Felt that, huh?”

“Yeah.Shit.”

“Hold for maybe five to ten seconds to start out with, then lower your hand, let go of your head, and straighten your neck.”

Gavin did so, his eyes widening when he realized the tight sensation in his neck had eased and the band around his head had already loosened. “Shiiit.”

“It’s effective,” Dakota agreed. “Before you try the other side, I want you to do a warmup though. I should have started with that.”

“Okay. What do I do?”

“Slowly,gently, turn your head to one side, hold it for a beat or two, look back to the center, then turn your head to the other side. Do that for about a minute.”

“That’s it?” Gavin eyed him skeptically.

“Did you learnnothingin the past minute?” Dakota teased.

“Right.” Gavin gave him a small smile. “It doesn’t take much to be effective.”

“Sometimes. It depends on what muscle group we’re talking about. But that’s almost always true with the neck. You’ll see once we get further into this. And, in fact, with the neck you can cause lasting damage if you don’t take it slowly and carefully.”

More cautious now, Gavin turned his neck to the left. “So how often should I do this? Just when I feel tension?”

“Well, I’d love to see you start a gentle morning and night stretching routine at the very least. Although it’s also very effective when you’ve been on your computer or phone for too long.”

Gavin winced, facing front. He did spend way too much time on both.

“So, morning, night, and throughout the day?” he prompted.

“Ideally, yes. Something tells me you’re going to be the least compliant person I’ve ever worked with though.” Dakota had his arms crossed over his chest again.

“Can’t imagine why you’d think that,” Gavin teased, turning his head to the right.

“No idea.”

Under Dakota’s supervision, Gavin turned his head back and forth for a minute, then did the neck stretch and hand flex thing a handful of times on each side.

“And that’s it,” Dakota said when he was done. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” Gavin admitted. “Not one hundred percent but a lot better.”

“Good. Now imagine how good you’d feel if you did that regularly.”

“I’ll do my best,” Gavin promised. Because he had no problem being regimented about his routine, but he did find it difficult to add anything else to it. Mostly because his damned schedule wouldn’t allow him to jam much else in there.

“Are you up for coming to HCI on Saturday?” Dakota asked.

Gavin mentally ran through what he knew he had on his agenda for the day. “I’ll make it work.”

“Then, if you’d like, I’ll put together a training plan for you.”

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