Important Resources For Learning Flexibility

The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Giles Wiley, an exercise and movement specialist and author of “Five-Minute Flexibility”.

Kevin: Sure. What are some of the most powerful resources that you found? Maybe one or two that you found, that help you bring yourself to this sort of knowledge and wisdom on flexibility?

Giles : Yeah, I mean, I’ve had, I’ve been blessed really. I’ve had some incredible teachers over the years. And,

Kevin: Mm hmm.

Giles : I’ve trained with some amazing people. But do you mean resources as far as books go, Kevin?

Kevin: Yeah. Books are fine, yeah.

Giles : I have a couple of Jeff Thompsons’s books and definitely, if you haven’t listened to Jeff’s interview yet, you need to listen. Jeff’s interview is about overcoming fear. And moving beyond fear in your life. And I really feel that’s a huge part of moving forward as far as flexibility goes, as far as realizing your full physical potential, whether it’s weight loss, or whatever it is. It’s about getting out from your comfort zone, facing that fear and just moving a little bit beyond. Because on the other side of that fear, on the other side of that curtain, as Jeff refers to it, it is an absolutely amazing place.

Kevin: Yeah.

Giles : So, I would say, first start by addressing fear, and you know, I think Jeff is best in the world when it comes to addressing that issue. Next, I would encourage everybody to think about starting to practice some form of meditation.

Kevin: Mm hmm.

Giles : And the contract-release exercise that we did earlier. It’s a great way to start off any meditation session. And it only needs to be five, ten minutes. Doesn’t need to be sitting for an hour at
the top of a mountain, or for days at the top of a mountain.

Kevin: Sure. [Laughs]

Giles : And it can be five, ten minutes. Just practice taking a deep breath in, holding it, feel how your tension builds up in the body when you hold your breath, exhale, let it go. Most people don’t breathe throughout the day. You know, you can see it on their faces. They are holding their breath in the whole time. So focus on your breath. Then focus on contracting your muscles. Practice tensing your feet, then your calves, then your thighs, then your buns, then your abdomen, your shoulders, [and] your fists, [and] your face, scrunch them up [and] let them go. Practice that, and if you do that ten times, and then go into a few moments of meditation, you’re going to start to feel huge huge differences in the tension you’re holding in the body and the tension you in your life. I would then encourage everybody to start thinking of their exercise session a little differently as well.

Starting [could] exercise session is a charge to play, to go through relaxed flowing movements, to practice putting your body through its full range of movement. So, you know, reaching to your toes if you can, but also reaching to the side, reaching to the back. Don’t be constrained like we are in our daily lives, where we’re just looking straight ahead, where we’re sitting down. So just get up and get moving.

And, yeah, maybe think about, if you’re really struggling to let go of the tension, maybe think about getting a massage as well, cause that often, it can often just help by identifying where you’re holding key areas. And if they’re very good massage therapists, they’re going to talk you through it as well.

Kevin: Fantastic.

Giles : So, I think EFP, probably overlaps very much with what I’ve been talking about.

Kevin: Oh yeah! That’s my, [Laughs] that’s one of my secret weapons. [Laughs]

Giles : [Laughs] Yeah, I think that very much does. And, [see if] you want to get yourself along to a couple of yoga classes and just see how they go for you, [if] not for everybody.

Kevin: Yeah.

Giles : You know, just go on along, give it a go, if anything, if nothing else, it’ll get you at least moving and breathing in the right way.

Kevin: Sure.

This has been just awesome information. I’m excited this message is very easy to understand, one, and two, I think it’s ground-breaking in terms of what you can do in so little time. We’re all pretty busy, aren’t we? You know? [Laughs]

Giles : Thank you. That’s why it had to become five minutes, I mean, you know, our life is very very busy these days. But my clientele, I mean, my clientele work long hard hours, and

Kevin: Yeah.

Giles : Maybe [more as results goes]. So, if it’s going to take more than five minutes, it’s just no way they’re going to do it.

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. So, why don’t we do this? Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your book now? We,

Giles : Yes.

Kevin: We’ve gotten a lot of great content. You know, no one’s going to say that we didn’t get your great content in this call. And Giles, go ahead and tell us about your book, and you know, what someone can find there and who is it going to benefit the most.

Giles : Yeah. The book’s “Five-minute Flexibility”.

Kevin: Mm hmm.

Giles : And one of the best places to find out more about it is FiveMinuteFlexibility.com. It’s a pretty comprehensive book. It’s been a mammoth project. It’s kind of fifteen years of work.

Kevin: Wow!

Giles : An endeavour in many ways. And what was the challenge was putting it together. So was a real usable system. I wanted it to be very simple to follow. I wanted it to be that if you were feeling
stiff and tight in your neck, maybe had a tension headache, you could go to one page and suddenly get some quick fixes.

Kevin: Mm hmm.

Giles : But also, there’re sample routines that you can follow every morning or before you play golf or tennis et cetera. So, the book, and also, I encourage everybody also if they can, subscribe to my
newsletter if they want to find out more of my types of exercises and my techniques.

Kevin: Mm hmm.

Giles : And that’s the Wiley Way, WileyWay.com is my newsletter. And, I giveaway lots of great tips in that as well.

Kevin: Mm hmm. It seems to me, and correct me if I’m wrong, and I’ve got some of your stuff, and seen you in action doing some of the flexibility stuff. But this is a way of life, more so than a way of, you know, flexibility. So it almost seems to me that this is five minutes that you can take in your day to
not only improve your flexibility, which is kind of a benefit, but it also improve the way that you think about things. Is that correct?

Giles : Yes. It is. And it’s interesting because that wasn’t what I was really setting
out to do.

Kevin: [Laughs]

Giles : But it’s starting to appear more and more, I mean, I’m getting letters from people saying how it’s improved their energy, it’s improved their relationships because of that, you know what I mean? It’s very interesting,

Kevin: [Laughs]

Giles : How it’s overlapping into so many different areas. And I actually say at one point in the book - it’s in the introduction - I say it’s called “Five-minute Flexibility“, but it could just as well been called “Five Minutes to Releasing Muscle Tension”, “Five Minutes to Developing Your Mind-Muscle
Connection”.

Kevin: Yeah.

Giles : Cause, really, we shouldn’t compartmentalize things quite the way I feel that we tend to.

Kevin: Yeah.

Giles : Everything is connected. Everything is connected, so yes this is, I love what you said here, Kevin. This is really [is just] about a way of life.

Kevin: Well, that’s fantastic! Well Giles, I want to thank you for this interview. This has just been, this has been a pleasure. It’s been really exciting, and informative.

Giles : Great! It’s been my pleasure, Kevin. Thank you very much for having me on.