By Tracy Renning
Stretching is usually overlooked as a beneficial aspect of exercising. Stretching plays a very important role in keeping the muscles supple and safe from any injury. This is the reason why stretching is an important aspect of warming up before an exercise regimen and cooling down after it. An ideal routine should do a workout of each of the major muscle groups. A flexibility regimen need not take much time. Five to ten minutes daily is enough. The exercises should be done three to five times a week and can help you to get rid of your stress. If you do a few minutes of stretches everyday, you can get rid of the stress that plagues you and focus on your activity.
Flexibility is useful for preventing injury as well as in treatment of injury. When done in a proper manner, stretching reduces the risk of injury and also increases the flexibility of the body. When muscle tendons are used actively, they have less of wear and tear in them. Stretching also improves recovery and is known to improve athletic performance. There is improved biomechanical efficiency. There may be also the fact that the increased flexibility of the neck, shoulders and upper back may lead to improved respiratory function. The benefits of flexibility are therefore far reaching.
There are three methods of stretching: static, ballistic, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation.
The static is mostly recommended for most athletes and the ballistic and PNF stretching is reserved for the few who are familiar with their use. If you want to get the greatest benefit from stretching, it should be done after warm up exercises. The increased blood flow because of stretching is beneficial in injury prevention. This is another benefit of stretching. Static exercises are done by slowly moving a joint towards its end range of motion. There is a gentle pulling sensation in the muscle that is being extended. The position is maintained for 15 to 20 seconds.
The stretching should not be done beyond a certain point where the one doing it feels pain.
There is also no need to bounce as this can lead to injury. The act of stretching leads to the fact that each muscle seems to give increasingly more flexibility. A set of 3 to 5 exercises is enough to get the best out of the routine. The right stretching routine will interchange between agonist and antagonist muscle groups and alternate sides. An example of the agonist muscle group is quadriceps and an example of the antagonist muscle group is the hamstrings.
Another good idea is to begin with the neck and advance down to the feet. The post-workout stretch is believed to help in the recovery process. It is a boon for those who are undergoing recovery after injury. Stretching should be done gradually over a long period and then the flow maintained to realize the full benefits.
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