Essential fatty acids help to lubricate your joints which is another factor important for range of motion. You can also try using natural muscle relaxants if you experience a lot of tightness. Foam Rolling : Foam rolling is an increasingly popular practice that works by removing fascial adhesions.
These are areas where the fascia, or connective tissue that binds the muscle fibers, is damaged and reduces flexibility. Foam rolling also helps to remove knots and can speed up recovery and prevent soreness.
You could incorporate foam rolling after you warmed up and before you begin stretching. Dynamic Stretching — Although dynamic stretching has shown to increase range of motion only to individuals who are already flexible, it can be a great supplemental exercise. Dynamic stretching means you are doing a body weight movement like a squat or lunge through a full range of motion.
It can help to prepare and activate proper muscles before your passive stretches. It can also help with tighter areas where you experience pain when trying to perform a long static hold.
The number one reason why increasing your flexibility is beneficial is that it allows you to perform everyday activities with ease.
This function naturally deteriorates as we age, so by stretching regularly we are able to increase and maintain a healthy range of motion. Lower Risk Of Injury. This benefit is particularly noticeable in those who usually do only strength training. Strength workouts tighten and shorten the muscles, which can deteriorate the range of motion, and create imbalances.
Regular stretching balances your body and significantly reduces your risk of injury from doing physical activities. Increased Circulation : Heart strength is crucial for circulation, but our vascular system is much more complex. It expands through our entire bodies and is impacted by movement — and lack of it. Tightness in certain areas can also mean your circulation in these areas is impaired. Stretching can release these areas and improve overall circulation in your body.
Reduced Pain : As we age, many of us begin to experience chronic pain, especially in the lower back and joints, as well as increased muscle soreness and cramping. For example, lower back pain is often caused by tight hamstrings and hip flexors and stiff shoulders can cause neck pain. By stretching your muscles, and balancing strength with flexibility, your pain will decrease. Sit Comfortably : If you are traveling a lot or working a desk job, it can become very uncomfortable to sit long hours.
Nobody knows. If anything, of all the fitness compartments, flexibility has the wildest variation when it comes to seeing notable gains. The best anyone can do is give you a sensible time-frame based off real world experience and practical application. One of the first things he said to us upon meeting him was: if you want to see marked changes in your mobility, you need to start looking at things in 18 month blocks.
Before I got into fitness I was a chunky gamer kid who was in love with his bedroom Xbox set up. I probably spent more time sitting in my xbox chair than I did drinking Dr Pepper.
The result of this was the most inelastic hamstrings ever and a ton of back pain. I vividly remember trying the classic laying hamstring flexibility test shown below and struggling to get to 45 degrees!
Keep in mind this was achieved after a thorough warm up and going through various hamstring mobilisation drills. In the next pic you see a pic of me in the identical position. The profound difference is: the second pic is after precious little warming up. Very informative and well explained. Thanks for the info! Anonymous December 29, at am. Anonymous July 28, at pm. Carol Todd July 6, at am. Excellent information! Great coverage of the topic. Sajjad June 28, at am.
Awesome… no doubt it has everything you want to know about stretching… Thanks! Salinwa September 6, at pm. Dianne January 24, at pm. Jacky Trani January 31, at am. Grace Yasui February 4, at am. This article is very informative. I found stretching definitely improves my flexibility. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Adam Sinicki Adam Sinicki is a full time writer who spends most of his time in the coffee shops of London. Our Newsletter Keep up to date by sign up for our newsletter and stay informed.
By checking this, you agree to our Privacy Policy. Recommended Articles. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads.
Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Traci Copeland is a fitness trainer based in New York. Yvonne McGreevy is a researcher, fact-checker, video content creator, and writer with over 15 years of experience working with various publications. We naturally do it first thing in the morning, reaching high and long into the air to rid our body of tension and stress, yet many of us skip the stretching portion of our workout, promising to do it next time.
Love it or hate it, stretching is an essential component for many in leading a healthy and fit lifestyle. Building a daily stretch sequence is simple and comes with a slew of health benefits, from increasing range of motion and improving flexibility, to warding off the risk of injury —all from just 10 minutes of mat time a day. Meet the Expert. Although stretching serves its individual purpose to each person, collectively, the overriding consensus on stretching is its positive role across many aspects of our health.
But these benefits depend on how and why we stretch. At its simplest, many find stretching a welcome relief. When viewing stretching as a science, findings on its effectiveness vary, with some experts singing its praises louder than others.
Depending on our schedules, routines and workout go-tos, stretch timing will differ from person to person. This is especially true the more we age, given cartilage can dry out and reduced levels of synovial fluid is produced to lubricate joints. In addition, due to inactivity, muscles and tendons become tighter during sleep, and so a gentle morning stretch is a refreshing wake up for the body. Stretching also plays a role before and after exercise, both to warm up the body, increase blood flow, and improve flexibility.
According to Jeffcoat, a static stretch is achieved by holding a single position for 30 seconds, while dynamic stretching can be conducted in a rep manner for around repetitions.
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