Stretching As Part Of Your Fitness Regime

By Cameron Abel – BestFitnessChoices.com

We certainly all know (well hopefully!) that regular and effective stretching is a crucial and vital part of your whole fitness and weight loss regime. Too often however, it is an area not done correctly or overlooked altogether!

Bouncing til we touch our toes and a few side stretches just won’t cut it anymore. What we are seeing today is a “shift” in the way we do stretches.
Traditionally, we isolated one particular muscle and performed an exercise that stretched and lengthened that muscle. Nowadays, there is a realisation that isolation exercises are not the best form of general fitness movements and we look more towards how the body actually moves in real life.
Today’s stretches work on this principle where we aim to stretch a range of muscles at the same time. All over, full body workouts have now been embraced by the stretching world as well!

The benefits of regular stretching are many, however the best ones are:

• Effective stretching can reduce injuries
Especially as we get older, we find that we can pull muscles, tear ligaments or just in general, feel absolutely awful a day or two after if we have not taken the time to warm up and stretch before we go full on into whatever activity we have chosen for that moment.

• Regular stretching will increase your flexibility
Can’t touch your toes? Or worse still, when sitting and stretching in your yoga, aerobics or other training class and the instructor tells you to touch your head to your knees – do you laugh at the thought? Believe it or not, regular stretching will dramatically increase your flexibility til you can do the splits like Jean Claude Van Damme! Well maybe not quite as good as him but you can get pretty close :)

• You can target problem areas and also increase your balance.
Stretching can certainly play its part in helping fix your problem areas. As a stretch is a movement that almost provides the same results as a mild body-weight exercise and also that stretching creates long, lean muscles you will definitely see some visual improvements to your body. Putting yourself in many different stretching positions will also improve your balance and co-ordination.

The benefits of regular stretch sessions are surely there however there is one major problem – stretching is BORING! Yawn! Like eating one healthy meal a week, stretching for one session a month or even a week just won’t get the job done.
Sure you will feel good right after the time you actually do it but to be really effective and see results, you need to be stretching daily. Yep that’s right, I said daily!

So how do I go about making regular stretching occur I hear you ask? The easy answer is commitment, planning and organisation!
You need to make yourself (and commit to!) a structured “Stretching Plan”.
Slap a piece of cardboard or paper on the fridge which states how many times a week you will stretch, when you will stretch, how long you will stretch and also what areas will you target?

Maybe you will choose to stretch in every ad break of your favorite nightly show or even better, stretch consistently through the whole news bulletin! A good stretch session right before you go to bed is also a wonderful way to finish the day and your body will thank you for it.

It is also a great idea to record some measurements as a starting point as well which will give you something to refer to, keep you on the ball and track your progress. It is quite motivational to see the length and depth of your stretches improve and increase over time – who knows you may even surprise yourself with your results!

So just what muscles do I need to work on?

This answer is different for everyone! For those of us not quite fit or out of form, so to speak, you will find that just about every stretch you do will offer up some tension and be hard to do. If that is the case then perfect! Just work on a number of whole body stretches as well as throwing in some traditional ones as well.
Those amongst us with good fitness, great form and those that are regularly active can still benefit greatly from stretching.

There is an easy test to see what areas you need to target and basically if you go through a stretch and extend yourself as far as you can and there are still no feelings of a decent stretch then you are already pretty good in that particular area and your stretches will be mainly for maintenance. Mix it up and find new movements and areas that when fully extended, offer you up some resistance and strain.

As with all exercises and training, there is a right way and a wrong way to do stretches no matter how simple they might seem. There are four main rules for you to follow to ensure you get the most out of your stretching sessions.

1) A good 5 – 10 minute warm-up is still crucial before stretching

I know what you’re thinking “Isn’t stretching warming up anyway?” The answer is yes and no! There are many times when a person has raced straight into a deep or long stretch and actually done damage such as pulling a cold muscle or even worse, doing damage to a ligament or joint.
The best way to warm-up is to start with gentle joint rotations. Start from the toes and work your way up, taking note of each joint and ligament, moving them in both clockwise then anticlockwise motions. Once you have reached your head, try some jogging on the spot, a brisk walk, time on the stationery bike or just about any type of aerobic activity the will get your blood flowing throughout your whole body.

2) Make sure you stretch both before and after exercise

Your performance will be improved significantly when you stretch before exercise because your muscles and tendons will have been lengthened. Try and hold pre exercise stretches for around 10 seconds. For those stretches after exercise, you need to try and hold them a bit longer. 30 seconds will do the trick however if you can make it last out to a whole minute or more, this is where the best results are achieved.
Stretching after exercise will ensure you recover better and do not face the “day after blues”. After exercise stretches also reduce the risk of injury by making sure the muscles are relaxed.

3) Keep breathing!

You would think this is a given however I see so many people who actually hold their breath while they are stretching, particularly if it is a hard stretch. Holding your breath actually makes it harder to perform the stretch as the body now has more tension, less blood flow and hence less nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. All in all, a top recipe for ineffective stretching!

4) Stretch slowly, gently and with fluid movements

Never bounce! This puts undue strain on the body and has the potential to create injuries. A true stretch is slow, gradual and fluid with no quick, jerky movements.
A stretch should also not be painful. If you are feeling pain while you are doing a stretch then what your body will actually be doing is going into pain response mode. In other words, your brain will tell your muscles and tendons that something is wrong and they will all contract. Obviously this is in direct opposition to what you are trying to achieve by stretching!

So there you have it! There is certainly more to stretching than meets the eye. Remember that regular stretching has so many positive benefits as a result and is something you really should be doing as often as you can.

Remember the key rules of stretching and commit to the task and you will have increased flexibility and balance, a stronger core and lean, elegantly sculpted muscles. Who doesn’t want that?!