7 Trainer’s Tricks to Help You Stay Motivated to Exercise

That’s why Roddy Lindsay founded Zabit, a new habit coaching service that relies on pairing clients with personal coaches – AKA the ultimate accountability buddies!

Whether you want to improve your workout plan, decrease your use of social media, limit your alcohol consumption, or get better sleep, Zabit coaches are there to motivate you toward your goals with one-on-one personalized messages, just like you're texting your best friend.

“Zabit’s mission is to make accountability universal and affordable. Adding accountability to everyday habits to make them long-lasting should be as easy as ordering an Uber,” said Lindsay, founder and CEO of Zabit. “By combining the empathy of human coaches with the ubiquity of mobile technology, Zabit is forging a new paradigm for behavior change.”

Zabit’s personal coaches are psychologists, wellness professionals, and advanced clinical psychology students with at least three years of training, so they’re equipped with all the right knowledge to help you stay on track with your goals, no matter what they are.

When it comes to your personal goals, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Pair with a Zabit coach today – you can get started now with a free 2-week trial. From there, plans start at just $8.99 per week.

Why Your Flexibility Stalls

As though going through puberty weren’t enough of a struggle, it’s also the time when you start to lose your natural flexibility. “No one is more flexible in their life than they are as a child,” says Dr. Leython Williams, a doctor of physical therapy at Athletico Physical Therapy. “However, during puberty, children often become temporarily less flexible. Some children have slow growth spurts, while others grow very quickly. This temporary decrease in muscle length/flexibility is a result of their bones growing faster than their muscles and tendons can stretch.”

Note that Dr. Williams refers to this particular loss of flexibility as temporary — meaning we can’t blame puberty for the fact our toes seem to be getting farther away every time we try to touch them.

“There is no specific age when we wake up and our flexibility has ‘officially declined.’ However, it is a fact that as we age our flexibility decreases, which leads to decreased functional ability and mobility,” he explains. “As our bodies get older, we lose a small amount of flexibility as a result of the normal aging processes. There is loss of water in our tissues and intervertebral discs, increased stiffness in our joints, and a loss of elasticity in muscles and tendons. In our 20s and 30s, it is important that we develop a consistent static and dynamic stretching regimen to establish and maintain flexibility and range of motion more easily into our older years.”

That’s right: What you do now matters later. And this isn’t just about keeping up in yoga, Dr. Williams cautions. “It becomes imperative that we stretch regularly to decrease our likelihood of various injuries.” Jill Belland, co-founder of Barre Belle, agrees. “It’s easy to feel invincible if you’re young and injury free! Flexibility will reduce your risk of injury: What doesn’t bend will break. Increased range of motion, balance, and mobility are all linked to flexibility and contribute to overall strength and fitness.”

How to Get It Back

When you’re a kid, flexibility comes naturally; when you’re an adult, you have to take responsibility for improving and maintaining it. “Peak flexibility age for adults can differ person to person and depends largely on their physical activity habits,” says Dr. Rachelle Reed, PhD, Pure Barre’s manager of training development and barre kinesiologist. “Notably, flexibility can be improved at any age when flexibility training is incorporated into a regular exercise routine. It’s important for adults to be strategic about including flexibility training into their workouts, because maintaining flexibility and physical function as we move into middle and older adulthood is associated with better quality of life and independent living.”

There’s no one flexibility standard everyone has to meet, Belland reassures: “There is no golden rule for what perfect flexibility is person to person, but there are simple markers such as touching your toes from a forward fold for hamstrings/lower back, or reaching for your hands behind your back, with one hand behind the head and the other behind the waist, for shoulder mobility. You don’t need to be a contortionist; moving around with fluidity in your everyday life and having good range of motion in your favorite activities without feeling pain or tension is a better way to gauge your own personal goals.”

But where do you start if you want to improve your flexibility? Dr. Reed explains, “There are two main types of flexibility training that you should aim to incorporate into your routine: Dynamic stretching, where a stretch is performed by moving through a challenging but attainable range of motion several times in a row, and static stretching, where a stretch is held in a challenging but attainable position for a longer period of time (at least 10-30 seconds).”

How do you know how far to go? “Our muscles have a natural stretch reflex that prevents us from going too far into a stretch, which can also cause injury,” Belland tells us. “Aim to gently stretch through this reflex. The key to increasing flexibility is about time under tension: It takes around 20 seconds to ease through the stretch reflex. Reintroduce the stretch and hold it for 10 seconds longer, working up to one minute. The second time you introduce a stretch, the stretch reflex will diminish, allowing your body to get deeper into your stretch and also building better muscle memory.”

If you’re still worried about injuring yourself — especially if you’ve been injured in the past — Dr. Williams recommends seeing a physical therapist for guided stretches. Belland reminds us that you don’t have to go to the gym or spend hours on stretching. “Stretch a little bit every day when you can fit it in after a workout or in front of the TV. If you just don’t think you’ll stretch on your own, getting to a yoga or a barre class is helpful if you need the accountability of a dedicated time and space.”

Speaking of the gym, just as your phys ed teacher told you, stretching is especially important before and after a workout. “Far too often active individuals begin their workouts without a dynamic stretch,” Dr. Williams says. “Dynamic stretching increases one’s range of movement and blood flow to soft tissues prior to physical exertion and/or sport performance. This type of stretching is vital in improving performance and reducing the risk for injury.”

But you don’t have to be an athlete to benefit — in fact, stretching is an important antidote to all that sitting those of us with desk-based jobs tend to do. “Sitting at your desk all day can lead to decreased flexibility in hip flexors and hamstrings by keeping them in a shortened position for a prolonged period of time,” Dr. Williams warns. “Consider a standing desk or work station or taking several breaks throughout your work day to stand up and stretch.”

Zendaya stuns while filming 'The Odyssey.'

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A post shared by curators of pop culture (@deuxmoi)

Thanks to DeuxMoi, we have a look at Zendaya and Matt Damon filming The Odyssey in Italy. (And no, the spoiler alert isn't for the 2000-year-old plot — it's for the costumes & potential casting confirmation!)

Zendaya wears a cream-colored Chiton with her hair braided into a low bun behind her head while Matt boasts a gray beard and looks a little bit like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Now, we still don't have official confirmation of who Zendaya's playing in the movie, although she's rumored to be playing Athena (but more on that later). A lot of people in the comments are convinced she's playing Athena, and Zendaya's practical costume supports that rumor in my opinion. But if these two are filming on an island, it could actually prove Z is playing Calypso, who tries to keep Odysseus on her island — or even Princess Nausicaä, who helps Odysseus when he washes up on her island. So it really boils down to whether Zendaya is trying to trap Matt Damon or help him...and we'll have to wait and find out.

"Zendaya booked, busy and beautiful as ever," one Instagram comment reads, while another points out "the fact she was literally Rue filming euphoria nightshoots like barely 48 hours ago 😭😭😭."

Tom Holland sets out on a hero's journey.

WE FINALLY GOT SET PICS OF TOM HOLLAND ON THE SET OF THE ODYSSEY pic.twitter.com/Fv00vudchl

— sabrina 🦇 (@nightwaynes) March 12, 2025

The first leaks we got of Tom Holland filming The Odyssey feature the Spider-Man 4 actor on a boat in Greece — and according to an extra who was on set, Tom was filming scenes of his character arriving in Sparta.

I'm a big fan of the curly hair (even though I remember Tom said he hated his long hair in Avengers: Infinity War because he felt like Prince Charming), but more than one person on the internet has compared Tom's look in The Odyssey to Elijah Woods' Frodo from The Lord of the Rings, and I can't help but laugh.

Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal on the set of ‘THE ODYSSEY’! pic.twitter.com/OCJy7JlcCA

— best of tom holland (@thollandrchive) March 13, 2025

We also recently got a look at Tom Holland alongside Jon Bernthal as they hung out in a tent off camera (and without their capes) and again I say: the curly hair is doing wonders for me!

Christopher Nolan and Universal haven't confirmed who our favorite stars are playing (aside from the announcement that Matt Damon is leading the story as Odysseus), but rumors have started circulating that Tom Holland will play Odysseus' son Telemachus, who sets out to find his father and is protected by Athena, rumored to be played by Zendaya. This means my favorite couple could get plenty of screen time together, which is literally all I care about.

The rumors also say we could see Anne Hathaway as Odysseus' wife Penelope, Charlize Theron as sorceress Circe, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, and Lupita Nyong'o as Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra. Stay tuned to find out! Until then, I'll be daydreaming about Tom Holland as Telemachus.