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The Importance of Stretching
Many people
skip stretching their muscles before exercise, not understanding how
important it is. Some figure their muscles will be heated up soon enough
as they work out, so why do they need to bother with warming up with
muscle stretches first? Many of those who do not warm up before
exercising would not even think about there being a need to stretch
muscles after exercising, which is often called cooling down. They went
balls out during their workout and now they just want to drag themselves
out of the gym before the pain of such a strenuous workout of the
muscles overtakes them.
Is there
really good reasoning for all of the endorsements of pre and post
exercise muscle stretching? Or is it another form of torture as the
seriously out of shape person just beginning a regular exercise program
might think? Stretching your muscles before beginning to exercise and
afterwards, will actually result in your body feeling less tortured as
it is moved and pushed in ways it is not used to because of your
previously sedentary habits. Whether you are just starting out
or you are a fitness buff, stretching your muscles before and after
engaging in an exercise program or fitness training regimen is
important.
Taking a
few minutes to stretch and warm up your muscles before beginning
exercise releases a lubricating substance from the cartilage within the
joints, which aids the fluid motion of muscles and also keeps bones from
scraping against one another at connection points in the body.
Lubricated and fluid moving muscles have more flexibility which reduces
your chances of injuring them. Helping your muscles to become more
flexible by stretching is not only beneficial for preventing injury
during exercising, flexible muscles are able to distribute strength
better which helps you in doing a variety of physical activities with
more balance, using less energy, especially while lifting and
bending.
During an
exercise routine you tense and stretch muscles, tensing and stretching
muscles strengthens them and increases the mass of muscles. The
circulation of blood throughout the body is also increased by stretching
your muscles. You know whether your muscles are getting a workout or not
because when they are, an area of your brain receives a message of muscle
tightening from them. The brain then relays this message to another part
of the brain which is responsible for allowing us to experience physical
responses to such messages, and you then feel your muscles get tighter.
Most of us do not usually think about these processes of the brain that
happening while we are exercising.
What we do
become aware of is the feeling of our muscles tightening. After a good
workout muscles and joints are heated up and tight and can stiffen and
become sore a few hours later if you do not take a few minutes to cool
them down with some post exercise stretching. This is opposite from
warming up muscles and joints before exercising by slowly increasing the
intensity and number of stretches. Instead you want to slow things down
and gently stretch to relieve the tightness in muscles and joints that
have built up during your workout. One note you should keep in mind about
post exercise stretching is that you should not do this if you strained
or sprained a muscle while exercising, as this can exasperate the
injury.
Whether you
are doing warming up or cooling down stretching you should avoid
bouncing while stretching because bouncing while stretching can cause
injury to muscle tissue. Stretching muscle groups such as the neck,
shoulders, back, hips, thighs and calves for at least thirty seconds
each pre and post exercising, usually gets the job done. You can stretch
them for longer if they still feel extra tight. So consider the
benefits of stretching before skipping it in the future.
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