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There are Many Benefits of
Stretching Exercises
Making a habit of doing regular stretching exercises, can help to lengthen your muscles and make daily activities easier as time goes on.
As we get older, our muscles get tighter and the range of motion we once had gets shorter. It can hinder the active lifestyle that was once normal day to day activities.
Things as simple as brushing our teeth, reaching for something on the top shelf or putting on clothes, can become difficult as we age.
What you will gain from this article:
An easy-to-use, quick reference guide on stretching exercises for anyone involved in health, fitness and sporting activities.
This handbook is written to minimize the likelihood of sports injury and improve athletic performance, it gives coaches, trainers, athletes and fitness enthusiasts a complete reference handbook to assist with the planning and implementation of their training and rehabilitation sessions.
Increased Flexibility - having and keeping flexible muscles can improve your daily performance. Lifting a package or picking something up off the floor becomes easier and not as tiring.
Improves Range of Motion of your Joints - this helps to keep you on your toes and better your balance, which will help you avoid falls and any other related injuries.
Reduces Muscle Tension - stretching exercises are and excellent way to lengthen and improve flexibility of all your muscles.
Improved Circulation - stretching exercises improves the blood circulation to all the muscles and joints. Increasing the circulation of our blood brings nutrients to our cells and can speed the recovery after any muscle injury.
Relieves Stress - stretching exercises relaxes the tense muscles that's usually followed by stress.
Increased Energy Level - this results from the increase in blood circulation. We can all use some more energy!
Better Posture - tense and tight muscles contribute to poor posture, this in turn can affect our inner organs and our appearance.
There has been a very recent study into the question on the benefits of stretching exercises and the results could very well change your whole outlook on stretching in general.
Stretching is important to us all and it comes natural. You'll feel good during and after stretching.
Be good to your body and it'll be good to you!!
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Your muscles are most adaptable to stretching when they are warm (and fatigued).
So generally, it's best to perform your stretching exercises after some type of warm up or after your workout altogether. That way your muscles are too tired to resist your attempts at stretching them.
If you have an area that has some tightness more often than others, like your shoulders, then you might want to stretch that muscle more often.
You should try to get in the habit of stretching everyday. It's relaxing and will help to loosen your joints.
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There is a "right way" to stretching and also a "wrong way" to stretching. When stretching it's important to breathe as natural as possible. If you hold your breath, you will tense up and you won't get the most out of your stretch.
You should stretch to the point of mild tension, not to the point your hurting. It supposed to feel good not bad!
As you continue your stretching exercises, you will get more and more flexible and eventually you'll be able to go further than before. So make sure you take it easy and listen to your body.
Hold each position for about 10-30 seconds. Each time, the feeling of tension will somewhat ease up. You can then move a little bit further into the stretch and hold for another 10-30 seconds. If it becomes too uncomfortable you need to ease up a bit.
Your muscles react the best when relaxed. If you stretch to the point of pain or discomfort, then those muscles are not relaxed and this can lead to injury if you just force it.
Do not bounce while stretching. If you bounce, your muscle actually contracts instead of relaxing. You want to "stretch" your muscles, so you need them to stay relaxed.
The benefits of stretching are often more extensive that the few that I mentioned above.
Some people experience pain relief from stretching that may be due to its effect in reducing inflammation. Some have also reported improvement in arthritis, headaches, back/neck or shoulder pain, fatigue and depression.
Now that should be enough motivation to get stretching!
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This is often overlooked. Stretching isn't the first thing you think of when you start a muscle building routine.
Your muscles need room to grow. Every muscle in our body is surrounded by a bag of connective tissue (aka fascia). This connective tissue is very important because it holds your muscle in it's proper place throughout your body.
Since fascia is so tough, it won't allow expansion room for the muscle to grow. This is the main reason you should be stretching if you're looking for some muscle gain.
Stretching benefits muscle growth and muscle aesthetics considerably. Being flexible increases your range of motion which in turn enhances muscle growth.
You can even do one or two stretches in between sets, that way you can finish two things at once. So, while increasing your flexibility, you will also guarantee that your muscle have plenty of room to grow.
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So.....What Are Your Thoughts?
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