As you adapt a more active lifestyle, your body begins to get used to more varied types of movements. However, a lot of exercise-related injuries happen because people fail to stretch before doing their exercise routines. Pulled muscles, extreme muscle pain, and cramps are just examples of the discomforts you might experience when neglecting to stretch.

Stretching and exercise come hand in hand; it gives you more flexibility and freedom of movement. It makes sure that your cartilage tissues are flexible and healthy. Stretching extends the kind of movement that you can usually do. If, for example, you didn’t do much exercise before, you may feel pain when twisting or bending. Activity in the torso and lower back areas will help reduce this pain, but for you to be able to safely bring your body up to that point where it’s comfortable to move that area, you’ll need to do some types of stretching. Immediately jumping into strenuous activity may not be a good idea since it may put undue strain on the parts that you want to exercise.

In doing some basic stretches, there are a few things that you need to remember:

  • Use proper breathing techniques when doing you’re stretching. Your muscles will oxygenate better while stretching.
  • Do not bounce while stretching. Some people think that this will make the stretching routine more effective when it does exactly the opposite. This may even result to some injuries on your muscle or tendons. Bouncing while stretching might create microtrauma on the muscles. These microtrauma heals with scar tissues. As a result, muscles become more tightened, less flexible, and bring more pain after exercising.
  • Don’t push yourself too much. Stretch slowly, shift positions without hurrying. Stretch and feel the tension, but do not force yourself to the point where you feel pain.
  • Hold a stretch for about 20 to 30 seconds. As your body becomes more accustomed to stretching, you can go ahead and increase the length of time with which you hold your stretch position.
  • Don’t try to stretch an injured body part, unless this is part of your physical therapy workout or recommended by a physician.
  • Don’t over-stretch your capabilities. Some stretching exercises are applicable only for people who have been doing it over a long period of time already.
  • Warm up a bit before you stretch. It is better to stretch a warmed up muscle. To warm up, do some brisk walking.
  • Cool down after stretching to minimize soreness after working out.

The “no pain no gain” approach to working out has been accepted by many people throughout the years as the norm when working out. The reality is that with proper stretching, exercising need not be such a painful experience.

It’s also good if you can do stretching by areas. For example, do stretching exercises on your neck and shoulder areas, then move down to your chest and arm area, then to your back, and then your legs.

Remember that stretching is a good way to maintain an active lifestyle. Accompanied with sufficient rest, picking the right types of food, and taking the right food supplements, you’ll be well on your way to meeting your weight loss goals. Aside from all these, you can also try slimming pills made of natural ingredients such as Proactol.

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