Flex and Stretch

I've lifted weights since I was an adolescent.

I started running just shy of 50.

I've done a little stretching off and on for as long as I can remember.  I've never been particularly serious about it.

I'm not sure the exact stimulus that got me thinking that stretching might help me run faster, but that was the motivation for looking at stretching routines.  I found the following on YouTube:

This formed the core of a new stretching routine that I started at the beginning of last year in Olympia.

I began to realize that I had been doing other stretching exercises to strengthen my back.  I also became cognizant of the fact that many of these activities fell into the realm of Yoga.  I soon had my own routine that I blended with my floor exercises.  This became my "Flex and Stretch" routine.

Three to five times a week I add a meditation component, complete with Lotus position.  Meditation usually begins with a focus on breathing, but often includes a body scan component, followed by a gratitude component.

I've identified the following yoga forms in my stretching/meditation routine:

1. Bridge
2. Child's pose
3. Cobra
4. Upward Dog
5. Downward Dog
6. Spinal Twist
7. Pigeon
8. Lizard
9. One leg Pigeon (modified)
10. Warrior III (modified)
11. Forward fold
12. Bound Angle Pose
13. Seated Forward Fold
14. Plank
15. Half Plough pose
16. Wind Removing pose
17. Pancake 
18. Side seated angle pose
19. Marichyasana d
20. Tree pose
21. Dancer pose (modified)
22. Lotus (for meditation)

It looks like a lot when I write it out like that, but it goes by very quickly.

I've been trying to touch my nose to the floor in Pancake. I still got a few inches to go.  The Tree pose and Warrior III are very critical to developing proper balance.

The "Flex" part of my routine is a lot of core and arm exercises.  I do crunches, leg raises, and pushups.  The elastic bands  are used for flexing biceps, pectorals, rhomboids, deltoids and latissimus muscles - at least the ones I have remaining.

400 crunches, and 60+ pushups is a good day for me.