The Benefits of Stretching
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, stretching is the act of extending a normal length or size of something for example an act of extending one’s body or limb in reclining position. We are going to look into these five benefits you can derive if you make stretching your daily routing. This is not a joke, it’s a reality.
Stretching Primes Your Muscles for Exercise
If the first mile of every run feels like straight-up torment, you need to start warming up with dynamic stretches like leg swings, high knees, and bodyweight squats and lunges. “A dynamic warm-up increases blood flow, moves the joint fluidly, and mimics the movements that will be completed during the workout.
Stretching Improves Your Posture
Improving your posture boils down to more than willing yourself to sit up straight. Tight muscles are synonymous with weak muscles, which lead to postural compensations. Have you ever wondered how that young lad in your workplace achieve that perfect body posture, start stretching today and you will look exactly the same.
Stretching Eases Back Pain
“Believe it or not, back pain may come from tight hamstrings,” says certified clinical exercise physiologist Tara Romeo, CSCS, assistant director of the Professional Athletic Performance Center in New York. That’s because tight hammies increase the stress on the muscles surrounding your spine and in your lower back. One Archives of Internal Medicine study found that following an intensive stretching routine for 12 weeks dramatically improves chronic lower-back pain and reduces the need for pain meds.
Stretching Improves Your Exercise Form
Tight muscles don’t do anything good for your exercise form. After all, when your muscles start compensating for each other, proper biomechanics go out the window, Brennan says. By correcting muscular imbalances, static stretching helps you perform any exercise with better form, both improving your performance and preventing injury (more on that next).
Stretching Prevents Injury
Performing dynamic stretching prior to exercise is important for preventing any of those “something snapped!” injuries that can occur when you work out with cold, tight muscles.
Stretching Boosts Your Joint Health
Stretching is about way more than your muscles, though. It also moves your joints through their full range of motion (remember those pre-run dynamic stretches we mentioned?), increasing the flexibility in your tendons, which connect your muscles to bones, so you’re less likely to suffer from runner’s knee or tennis elbow, Brennan says.