Stretch It Out!

By Diana Chaloux

Stretching is such a crucial portion of your fit and healthy lifestyle, yet so often it is overlooked because we don't have time or don't see the benefit. Following you will find a wealth of information on stretching to enhance your stretching education so you will understand why it is so important and why you should incorporate it into your daily routine!

1. Stretch when you are warmed up. It is not a good idea to just start stretching when your body is cold. This will increase your risk of pulling a muscle. It is better to stretch when your body temperature is elevated, this makes it so your muscles are more pliable and more willing to stretch and you won't have as great a risk for pulling a muscle. Think of your body as taffy. When the taffy is cold you can't really do much with it, warm it up and it will stretch easily!

2. Hold your stretches for AT LEAST 10 seconds. Longer than that is better, 30 seconds to a minute on each side would be great!

3. Stretch everyday! Unlike strength training (it's not a great idea to train the same muscle groups two days in a row, they need to recover!) you can stretch everyday! The more you do it the better. Stretching improves your flexibility and the range of motion available to you at your joints. Flexibility is something that you can continue to improve upon, however if you stop stretching you will lose any gains in flexibility fairly quickly.

4. Try to stretch all major muscle groups each day. This includes Chest/Hamstrings/Glutes/Quadriceps/Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps/Calves/Back

5. Don't stretch into pain! You should feel tension on the muscles when you are stretching, but don't stretch if you are feeling sharp pains!

6. Yoga is a great way to get your stretching in as well as work on balance, stability, strength, coordination and focus! If you've never tried a yoga class, find one near you and give it a shot!

7. Stretching is a great way to help alleviate stress. At work during the day it will be very helpful to take 5 minutes here and there for a movement and light stretching session. See the Office Timer in "Calculators" section for more ideas!

8. There are a few different ways of stretching, the two most popular are Ballistic which is a bouncing movement type stretch and Static which is where you move into a stretch position and hold it there. In general the static stretch is the one that you want to perform! Unless you are warming up for a gymnastics routine or similar type sport there is no need to be bouncing while stretching as it will only increase your chance of injury!

9. There are several factors that can influence your ability to stretch: they include age, the shape of your bones (some people are just naturally going to be more flexible due to their bone structure), temperature of your body tissue, muscle soreness, how much muscle you have on your body, what types of muscle fibers you have and how tight the opposite muscle group is.

10. Always BREATHE into your stretches. Don't hold your breath while you are stretching, hold the position and every time you exhale try to relax your body and move a little bit deeper into the stretch.

11. Stretching will help to minimize your risk of injury as it causes your muscles to be more elastic.

12. Stretching is a fantastic way to work on improving your posture. Poor posture is oftentimes caused by tight muscles. Think about this. You all know someone who is hunched over, shoulders rounded, maybe you yourself are! It is a very common postural deviation since we are all hunched over so much in life with computers and driving. So basically the chest muscles are very tight! The back muscles are probably also weak. So an easy way to improve this problem is to stretch your chest muscles. One quick chest stretch is to use a wall, bring your arm up to shoulder height and bend the elbow to 90 degrees, stand up tall and press into the wall stretching through your chest and the front of your shoulder.

13. Stretching helps to increase your blood flow and supplies joints and muscles with more blood!

14. Stretching everyday will relieve tension on your lower back and help to eliminate lower back pain. 90% of the population suffers from lower back pain on a regular basis and the majority of these problems could be relieved just from stretching! Tight hamstrings and pelvic muscles are a major cause of lower back pain, so stretch them!

(One great way to stretch the hamstrings is to sit on a bench or on the floor with one leg extended straight out in front of you. If you are seated on the floor bend the opposite leg so that the sole of your foot is facing the knee of the extended leg. Sit up tall and bend forward from the hips until you can feel a stretch through the back of your leg. Hold and repeat on opposite side)

15. Stretching minimizes stress, decreases stiffness and helps your muscles to RELAX!

I hope by now you are convinced that stretching is an extremely yet often overlooked segment to your fit and health lifestyle! Start stretching today and see how much better you will feel!