It’s vitally important that you warm up and stretch BEFORE exercising. Here are some tips that you might find useful - especially if you answer yes to any of the following questions:
- Do you ever feel muscular tension?
- Do you sometimes experience lower back pain?
- Do you sometimes grunt or groan when bending down to pick things up?
If you answered yes to any of these, then you may have poor flexibility, normally a result of lifestyle, lack of stretching, and perhaps sitting down all day if you have a desk job! Why should you be concerned about flexibility? Well being flexible can help us in our lives in different ways, here are just a few:
- Reduce the possibility of injury during physical and normal day-to-day activities.
- Improve the strength of your joints – especially important as you get older!
- Improve posture, making you look taller and slimmer
- Help prevent back pain and potential future back-related problems.
- Improve your physical and sports performance in more ways than one!
- Improve your general sense of well-being leading to a better quality of life, as well as helping you to cope with everyday stresses!
Know your stretches
Essentially there are two forms of stretching: static and dynamic.
Static - this is a controlled and relaxed stretch, which lengthens the muscle through the full range of motion (ROM). This can then be broken into two categories: a developmental stretch (holding the stretch for a period of time) this stretch will improve your flexibility, the other type is a maintenance stretch (short held) this maintains the range of flexibility you already have. These types of stretches are recommended for best results.
Dynamic - a full ROM is achieved through continuous muscular contractions. i.e. Fast arm swings, high kick drills etc. This type of stretching is mainly recommended for Sports Specific athletes.
Influences on your flexibility
Long periods of inactivity and a person's body type (muscular build and bone structure) are the two main influences in determining your range of motion. Bone, joint and ligament connections around a muscle group effects the natural flexibility of the performer. Up to 50% of a joint's ROM is influenced by its bone and ligament structure!
Improving your range of motion
Everyone, regardless of their exercising goals should include some form of stretching within their routine. To gain greater flexibility follow these simple rules:
- Always spend 5 - 10 minutes warming the whole of the body up before you begin to stretch ANY muscle group (read more about how to warm up below)
- Aim to perform 2 - 3 static stretches on each major muscle group directly after your warm up, concentrating on the areas you will later exercise.
- Hold each stretch for 20 - 30 seconds.
- Cool down stretches - performed after you've exercised – should be held for longer (up to 60 seconds as a minimum).
How to Warm Up
A warm-up helps your body prepare itself for exercise both mentally and physically, and reduces the chance of injury. Use this time to help prepare your mind for the exercise that will follow.
The aim is to increase circulation around the body, in a gradual manner, as not to put any pressure onto the body. During the warm-up any injury or illness you have can often be recognized, and further injury prevented. Extra clothing can be worn, to help increase the body temperature, which in turn will make your muscles more pliable, and ready to be stretched.
The warm-up can be a combination of rhythmic exercise, such as those shown in aerobic videos, or a slower version of the aerobic activity to come. For example, you might want to walk before you jog, or doing the hoovering and mopping of the floor, prior to doing a light home circuit.
What is important is that you warm up and do some static stretching. The body will take time to warm up properly as it has to shut down areas such as the digestive system, in order to supply the muscles with more blood.
Aim for a minimum of 5 minutes for a warm-up and the same for stretching. When working out, take into consideration that it may take a good 30 minutes for your body to be working at its best.
During cold weather, and certainly if you're going to do an activity which requires sudden bursts of activity, make sure you spend more time warming up.
Recommended Activity
As well as stretching to warm up and warm down, always aim to include some form of stretch based activity within your exercise programme to achieve best workout results, choose from Yoga, Body Balance or arrange to speak to your gym instructor to give you some exercises that you can do in the gym or at home!
There is nothing better than feeling your muscles lengthen after a hard workout, it helps you to relax and feel good! After all you deserve it!
Read on to see examples of stretching exercises including instructions and pictures to help you.