I have been inspired by pictures like the one above to use squatting as a radical and effective calf stretch. When I have time, I take 10 minutes before a walk to use a meditation app (in my case “10% Happier”) or read texts, while squatting with my back to the wall so I don’t fall over. As you can see, unlike the Hadza shown above, my heels don’t touch the ground, making it harder to balance without leaning against something. I hope to someday have my heels touch the ground, but it will probably take me years.

I should be clear that I am relaxing everything while doing this stretch. My heels are off the floor because the relevant calf muscles and tendons are still shorter than they should be, taking the Hadza as an indication of the original human design.

Doing mindfulness meditation goes well with doing this stretch because there is some mild discomfort. One part of mindfulness meditation is accepting mild discomfort; I would rather that the mild discomfort I am learning to accept is something useful like stretching my calves than something not particularly useful, like an itch.

You will want to start with much less than 10 minutes. To begin with, I did only a few minutes. Then I worked up to longer when it seemed a shorter time wasn’t challenging enough and I could go further.

I can really feel the difference after doing this stretch, which is much more conducive to multitasking than alternative, much less effective stretches.

Postscript: You can see that I have a goal of wearing out old clothes by wearing them on days I am not going up to campus :)

For annotated links to other posts on diet and health, see:

• Miles Kimball on Diet and Health: A Reader's Guide