I signed up for an online stretching course, which sends you a new 'class' every day for ten days via email.  It fit my budget, and the concept fit well with my overall crankiness about organized fitness activities.  I mean, nothing makes me gag more than forced cheerfulness in a room full of people who are more physically fit than I am, which is just about everyone.  And I've yet to find an actual real-time class that first my 'special needs' right now.  Even a basic yoga class for damaged bodies was beyond me.  

I know I'm stiff and I know that some parts of me feel very 'locked', and I figured that wasn't helping the RA issues.  I know that walking everyday is one of the best things I can be doing, but I also know that walking when my feet ache is miserable, and if I'm walking with bad form and bad posture, I can be exacerbating problems as much as alleviating them.  I realized that what my poor body needs most right now is to loosen up as much as possible. I also know that I can't possibly handle stretching-and-bouncing types of exercises.  I needed something calm and focused and not, at this time, aerobic in nature at all.

The particular course I found (which I realize is inappropriate to name as it's a commercial enterprise) starts with toes.  Just toes.  Thirty minutes of massaging, flexing, stretching toes.  I can't quite get in the same position as the instructor, with one ankle resting on the other knee, but I could adapt it, and I could hit 'pause' and take breaks.  During the thirty minute session (which you have permanent access to, so you can repeat as needed) I learned that my toes actually hurt a lot more than I'd realized, and that the stretches felt really good.  And two hours later, they still felt really good.  And the next morning, I actually wanted, practically craved, doing those stretches again.  I think the massage / manipulation helped with blood flow and that helped reduce inflammation a bit.

The second session is for feet, and the third for ankles.  Nearly all of this could be done either in a chair or in bed, or standing behind a straight chair and using it for support.  I have done these classes now a few times and while the 'toe' one was the most helpful for me of these three, they've all been beneficial.  The proportion of science to woo is pretty good; there's emphasis on balancing extension and flexion, and the instructor frequently cautions against doing anything to the point of intense pain.  The accompanying background info they send for each session talks about the importance of toes, ankles and feet for overall balance, and one of my fears is that of falling as i get older and achier, so that struck a chord with me.

There are seven other sessions:  knees, hips, mid-lower back, upper back and shoulders, neck, jaw, and wrists.  I expect to have extreme difficulty with some of these, especially hips - but, I think that spending a week or so intermittently doing the ones that precede it will give me a better foundation for doing so.  You know, as opposed to going to a real-time class where you do everything all at once.  I just can't handle that right now.

I realize this isn't for everyone, but I think it's workable for many of us.  You know your own body; you know when to back off or adapt a suggested stretch.  We all focus on our hurt parts, but sometimes forget to keep the rest of us as functional as possible, and stretching needs to happen before you can think about strength training or aerobic improvement.  I am not promoting the particular course I found, nor am I connected to it in anyway other than being a customer.  But I would like to encourage all of my fellow warriors to consider looking into ways to learn more about stretching our aching bodies.