Stay Flexible With Stretching Exercises

Stretching exercises are like vegetables to us: we know we should be doing (eating) them, but we often don't.

We are often told stretching is important and that we should do them regularly, but why?

Before I answer that, a more interesting question is: where did stretching come from, or, when did humans suddenly decide we should do exercises just to improve flexibility, such as static stretching?

If you think about humans in a primitive sense, we stretch instinctively. When you get up in the morning, what is one of the first things you do? You probably yawn or take a deep breathe, and ... stretch.

When you get tired or have been sitting still for a long time, you'll automatically want to stretch again.

Even if you're a couch potato, you're body is getting you to exercise whether you like it or not!

Benefits

This instinctive behavior keeps our muscles limber, strong, and flexible.

Do you have a cat or dog? Ever notice how often they'll stretch their legs before they start to walk around. They do it quite often, and it helps keep their muscle tone.

That's all well and good, but for those of us who need something extra, we'll do dynamic stretching exercises and static stretching exercises.

What are the added benefits? Some say it is to help prevent injury during exercise, but it is more likely to improve your movement and range of motion.

Solid warm-ups and good stretching can also help manage and relieve stress; amplify mind and body relaxation with biofeedback.

Also, It's nice to be a bit more graceful in your environment, as your coordination is bound to improve. Sports anyone?

Stretching Guidelines

Here are some tips for when you do your stretching exercises.

• Warm Up: It is very important to warm your muscles up before stretching them. As the saying goes, it's like stretching a cold rubber band: it'll just break.
• Don't Go For Pain: Don't stretch to the point of pain because you might cause damage to the muscle tissue. Go until you “feel” the stretch, but don't try to overdue it and endure.
• Be Consistent: Stretch both sides of the body, stretch each side of each pair of muscles, and do it for the same amount of time.

I encourage you to incorporate stretching into your routine. Flexible and limber muscles are less prone to injury and improve athletic performance.

If you play a competitive and intense sport like football or basketball, this is especially true. Many times while playing these sports, I have had people push, bump, step on, and contort my body in several places and to a degree that if my muscles and tendons were not conditioned to be that flexible, I would have been more injured for sure.