The Benefits of Stretching
Be honest with yourself, how often do you stretch? And how often do you feel like your body is just not playing ball? Stretching or not can have a big impact on how supple your body and muscles feel as well as how often you get injured.
If you want to find out just how important stretching is for you, keep on reading.
Why is stretching important?
Stretching, whether static or dynamic, is vital for your body. Especially as you age. When you stretch, you’re focusing on flexibility in your muscles and joints. Some people think that’s only important if you want to do the splits or touch your toes. But the impact of stretching is for the everyday. That’s because flexibility is all about how well your muscles and joints can move without pain, stiffness or restriction.
For starters, it improves your range of motion. The more flexible you are, the easier your body will move. Functional mobility will help you in general life doing things like climbing stairs, lifting things overhead and walking.
And because you have better range of motion, you’ll also be at less risk of straining, spraining and overusing your muscles. Which could mean fewer injuries.
When should you stretch?
The time of day you stretch doesn’t really matter too much but you will notice a difference when your muscles are warm. That doesn’t mean it’s the only time you can stretch but you might be able to go deeper if you do.
Stretching is beneficial at any time of the day because it increases blood flow around the body which helps to reduce stiffness. So whenever you do it, you’re bound to feel better afterwards. Just remember to only go as far as you feel you can stretch. There shouldn’t be any pain, though a little discomfort is okay.
In terms of what types of stretching you can do, both static and dynamic (moving stretches) will help you feel better. According to some studies, there’s evidence which suggests that static stretching before a run might actually be worse for your performance. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stretch before you head off. Dynamic stretching is a great way to warm up your muscles.
Signs you’re not stretching enough
It’s usually quite easy to tell when you’ve not been stretching enough. It could be stiffness when you get up out of bed or not being able to move or bend like you used to. Other indicators are stiff hips, a sore back and taking longer to get rid of aches after you work out.
The good news is that this stiffness can be reversed with a consistent stretching routine. Some advice is to try to add stretching after every workout or at least twice a week, whatever you do the most.
Stretches for…
Lower back
Some good lower back stretches include:
Cat and cow
Lying on your back and hugging your knees
Supine twists
Child’s pose with your knees together
Hamstrings
Hamstring stretches you may want to try are:
Seated forward fold
Standing forward fold
Half split (yoga pose)
Standing one-legged hamstring stretch
Hip flexors
To stretch your hip flexors, you can try:
Low lunge
Figure four pose
Butterfly pose
Pigeon pose
Bridge
Happy baby
Calves
Good stretches for your calves include:
Downward-facing dog
Calf stretch against a wall
Seated calf stretch with resistance band or towel
Forward fold
Glutes
Glute stretches to help stiffness are:
Figure four
Pigeon pose
Seated glute stretch
Downward-facing dog
Supine twist
Quads
Quadricep stretches you can try are:
Standing quad stretch
Low lunge
Prone quad stretch
Shoulders
If you’re looking for a good shoulder stretch, why not try:
Cross-arm stretch
Eagle pose
‘Thread the needle’
Pendulum swings
Cross-body swings
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