10 Things You Should Know About Stretching
Thursday, September 25th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Before physical fitness training, one must give importance to doing warm-up or stretching exercises to prevent accidents or to enhance the output during the training. There are also a number of precautionary measures and tips to serve as guidelines when doing fitness exercises.Here are your options.
1. To increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries, stretch before and after a firm workout.Everyone knows that stretching before a workout is beneficial, but what most people don’t realize is that stretching after a workout can increase flexibility.
2. Hold your stretching position for more than 60 seconds to increase flexibility. While holding your position for 20 seconds is enough for warm ups, holding each position for at least 60 seconds will develop the body’s flexibility.
3. Do not repeatedly stretch then immediately drop to the relaxed position. This is more appropriately termed as bouncing while in a position.When stretching, hold that position for several seconds, and then slowly relax. You may do this exercise repeatedly this way. Bouncing or forcing yourself into a position during stretching can strain or damage some joints or muscles.
4. Work slowly in increments instead of immediately proceeding to doing the hardest exercise or position.
5. Make sure that you have stretched or warmed up all muscle groups.The neck always seems to be neglected during a workout. Stretching the neck muscles can be as simple as placing the palm of one’s hand against the front of the head and pushing it.Then, do the same to the sides and the back of the head.
6. Stretch regularly to continually increase your range of movements and your level of flexibility and strength.
7. Exercise while only considering what you’re capable of, and not of what others can achieve.Do not force yourself to do exercises that you are not yet capable of just because there are people who can do it.Slowly increase your limit.Don’t ignore your body.You should consider reducing the range of motion for those days where you’re just too tired.
8. Learn to rest. Rest in between sets and stations to make sure that the body has enough time to recover its energy.Also, it is advisable that you don’t work the same muscle groups consecutively for two days.The muscles grow during the period when you rest and not when you are working out.
9. Do aerobic exercises to strengthen your heart.An aerobics workout takes up the most oxygen.This includes cardiovascular exercises such as skipping rope, running or swimming.
10. To increase intensity for longer periods of time, it could help listening to music.Your options are CD players, mp3 players, or strap arm radios for this purpose.Just make sure that you brought your headset with you so you wouldn’t disturb people who don’t prefer music while exercising.
Apart from preventing injuries and increasing one’s limit, it is also said that stretching is good for a tired body and also for a stressed mind and spirit.
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