6. Why Stretching is Important
For one, this leads to increased flexibility. Flexible muscles can improve your daily living and prevent injuries. Everyday lifting, bending, running, walking, and working out will become much easier tasks, and you can perform them more frequently.
It also leads to increased range of motion. Increasing your range of motion will allow you to move more easily, it will help to decrease aches and pain and helps improve balance and prevent injury. If your range increases, then the ability of muscle gain increases.
Stretching also improves circulation. When you stretch, the blood flow to your muscles is increased, thus improving circulation. This also helps to speed up the recovery process of your muscles after a vigorous workout or muscle injury.
One of the most rewarding parts of stretching is the stress relief. Stretching has been proven to relieve stress because it relaxes the muscles and helps the release of endorphins to improve your mood.
Stretching will also help promote better posture. An increase in stretching will relax your muscles, preventing them from getting tight throughout the day and throughout your workout. Relaxed muscles help maintain proper posture. Added exercises will also help maintain and improve your posture.
PREVENTS INJURY. If your muscles are too tight, your risk for injury is greater.
7. Warm Up
This is done before your workout. Warming up prepares your joints, muscles, ligament and cardiovascular system for exercise, gradually raises your body temperature to prepare for exercise, Increases your range of motion (This makes your muscle healthy and stronger), decreases risk of injury, and subsequently helps with injury prevention.
Examples:
- Aerobic jogging, walking, jumping rope, stepping
- Stretching (assisted and non assisted)
- Activity specific drills
8. How to Cool Down
This is done after your workout. Stopping your exercise abruptly can cause venous pulling and decrease the removal of waste products and toxins in the body. Example – lactic acid builds up, muscle becomes tight, pain occurs. Not cooling down can lead to muscle cramps and increased soreness, gradually decreases body temperature, gradually decreases heart rate, increases the recovery process, decreasing the recovery time, and decreases risk of injury, prevention of injuries.
Examples:
- Aerobic jogging, walking, jumping rope, stepping
- Stretching (assisted and non assisted)
9. If It Hurts……Stop!
Micro-tears sprain/strains, and muscle imbalances can form under the slightest bit of pain. If you have pain, tenderness, or an “uneasy, something doesn’t feel right” feeling – you have an injury! Whether slight or severe, something is wrong. This small injury, usually taken care of in a matter of weeks, can turn into a big injury, usually last months, and can cause you to decrease your production in the gym. Get it checked when you feel it!
10. Start Slow
When learning new exercise or sport start slow. Don’t compare what you are doing to what others are doing and know where you are starting. Learn the exercise; get use to the exercise, master the exercise, then get stronger from the exercise. Slowly increase weight when beginning a new exercise that you may not have performed before.
Example: Runners and cycle:
- Beginners do great if they start slow
- But once runners/cycle start to place more distance and time on their bodies, they start to develop cramps, ankle and hamstring injuries, and more
This is because their body wasn’t strong enough for the increase yet. This same principle applies to weight lifting, resistance training and cardio!
Tags: fitness, health, Injury, Injury Prevention, muscle, muscle tightness, post workout, stretch, stretches, stretching, workout, workouts
Categories : How to Workout
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