Stretching is one of the best ways to keep your muscles healthy. Stretching regularly will help maintain your muscle strength and increase your flexibility. The more flexible you are, the better it is for your joints. Keeping muscles and joints in top condition helps with your day-to-day range of motion and can help guard against injury.
As beneficial as stretching is, there has been a shift in exercise theory regarding how you should stretch and when. For years, experts recommended stretching before you played sports or before you exercised. However, recent research suggests that stretching before a workout does not decrease your chance of injury. Instead, it is more important to do a warmup before exercising.
Do not confuse stretching for warming up. A good warmup will boost your heart rate. It will make your body warm all over because of the increased blood flow and oxygen to your muscles. Specifically, your warmup should make you break a light sweat and target the same muscles you’ll use during your sport or activity. Save your stretching for post-game or post-workout.
While stretching has long been associated with working out, stretching daily or a few times a week as its own activity can boost muscle and joint health. Adding it to your routine does provide a flexibility that decreases the risk of day-to-day injury. Plus, it helps reduce tension, increases efficient muscle movement, and can improve your posture.
Think about waking up in the morning. Most likely, one of the first things you do without even thinking about it is stretch. Stretching is instinctive, meaning that your body already is leading you to do it. While this type of morning stretching is a great way to get up and going, focusing on more targeted stretching during the day will have the greatest benefit on muscles and joints.
Even though it is best to do deep stretching post-workout, your warmup can also include elements that have built-in stretches. This is often called dynamic stretching or even dynamic warmup. Examples of incorporating stretching into your warmup include performing lunges, doing high kicks, pushups, jump squats — almost any heart-boosting activity that engages the same muscles you are about to use in your sports activity or workout.
Post workout, your stretching should be even more purposeful. It is important that you stretch to reduce tension so that your muscles can return to a relaxed state. While static stretching (stretching muscles without warming up in an effort to loosen them) before a sporting activity has been shown to decrease muscle strength and power, after workout is a good time for this type of stretching. Your body already being warm from exercise will help lengthen that muscle tissue. It probably won’t prevent soreness, though.
If you find yourself getting sleepy at work or school or losing concentration, it’s time to stretch. Stretching at work can guard against repetitive-motion injuries that are caused by deskwork. It can boost energy, as well.
You can begin with some simple overhead-arm stretches, but don’t stop there. Do stretches that engage your upper and lower back, your neck, your legs, and even your wrists and ankles. Don’t be embarrassed to stand up and even do a few squats. In fact, standing instead of sitting is a great way to break up your day and get your circulation flowing, so do it whenever you can.
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