How to Stretch Muscles Properly

Stretching is a very often-overlooked element of exercise. You can get away with not stretching before a few types of activities. Regular, smooth movement exercises like walking or riding a bike on a relatively level surface at a moderate speed do not require too much stretching. But even these low-key exercises can still benefit from loosened muscles and tendons. If you participate in any kind of intense exercise like jogging, running, mountain biking, weight lifting, or aerobics, then you absolutely need to stretch. But, you also need to stretch correctly and effectively if you want to get the most out of your workout and reduce the chances for injury. This article will shed some light on how to stretch properly.

Stretching has a number of benefits, but the most important one is that it will allow your muscles and tendons a chance to increase their range of motion. Range of motion is the extent to which these parts of the body can stretch and contract without tearing. If you decide to go sprinting without stretching properly beforehand, then your muscles will have a lower range of motion and you could potentially tear or damage the tissue. Stretching out also helps to improve blood flow by stimulating certain muscles. Finally, stretching properly feels satisfying. You will feel much more loose and ready for action if you stretch rather than skipping it.

Stretching should not be done while the body is "cold." By this, I mean you should not start stretching after sitting at a computer for two hours if you can help it. It will benefit your stretching if you take five to ten minutes and do a light warm-up. How to best warm up? Some great warm up activities include light jogging, jumping jacks, or riding a stationary bike. This warm-up will do what's inherent in its name-it will increase blood flow to muscle groups and get them ready for stretching. Another thing to remember about stretching properly is that you should not under any circumstances bounce around while you're in the middle of a stretch. You might have seen some people doing this, but it is a very dangerous way of stretching. If you bounce or make other kinds of ballistic movement while you are holding a muscle to the safe limit of its range of motion, you could potentially injure yourself. This especially applies to stretches than involve standing up. Your upper body weight can work as a devastating force if you bounce during a hamstring or groin stretch.

Next, in order for stretching to be beneficial, you need to hold a stretch between twelve and twenty seconds. If you only hold a stretch for only five minutes or so, you will not be properly stimulating enough muscles or tendon fibers for long enough and will not get a true stretch. It may be uncomfortable to hold a stretch for as long as you need to, but it is necessary. Finally, you should be conscious of how far you take a stretch. The rule of thumb is that you should stretch to the point of discomfort, not pain. This means, if you feel a stabbing pain in your muscles or tendons that causes you to squint your eyes and grit your teeth, BACK OFF IMMEDIATELY. You could severely injure yourself if you take stretching too far.

Now that you know the basics of good stretching, let's go over a few stretches that you absolutely should not do without. I will tell you how to do a few very important stretches properly and effectively. The first involve stretches of the hamstring and quadriceps. These are antagonistic muscles that either raise the knee up or curl the leg back. In other words, the hamstrings and quadriceps are your primary muscles for locomotion. Also, they are notorious for being unbalanced strength-wise. Sprinters often have quadriceps that are much too powerful for their hamstrings. If the muscles are not stretched properly, the powerful quadriceps can pull a hamstring out of alignment. Therefore, perhaps the most important muscle in the body you can stretch is the hamstring. How well you stretch your hamstrings will also determine how well you can perform in explosive exercise. There are a couple of methods of properly stretching hamstrings. The most basic hamstring stretch is to attempt to touch your toes from a standing position. If you have long legs are relatively unflexible, it might be a good idea to bend your knees slightly. Another variation of the hamstring stretch is to put one foot straight forward and the other foot perpendicular and about three feet behind while standing. You then bend over at the waist and attempt to touch the ground in between your two legs. A final hamstring stretch you can do is called the "hurdler stretch" because of the way your legs are oriented. Sit down with one leg tucked under your body and the other leg outstretched in front of you, toes pointing up. Now attempt to bring your hands forward and touch the toe of your outstretched leg, feeling a stretch in both the hamstring of your extended leg and the quadriceps of your trail leg.

I just mentioned one effective quadriceps stretch. Another is to stand up and grasp one of your feet, pulling it behind your body so that your heel touches your butt. Now, using extreme control, try to slightly push your quadriceps muscles down toward the ground without bending the knee of your other leg. People find that the greatest challenge facing them with this stretch is how to remain properly balanced. A neat trick aside from using a stationary object to balance yourself with a free hand is to stare at a particular point on the ground. This will help to focus your attention and improve your balance while stretching out your muscles effectively.

The next most important place to stretch is the groin. If you pull a quad or a hamstring, at least you can limp around, but a pulled groin makes nearly all leg movement excruciating. Therefore you need to devote some extra time to stretching the groin out properly. There are two basic stretches you can perform. The most popular groin stretch is called the "butterfly stretch." To perform this, you need to sit down and bring your feet soles together, with your knees jutting out to the side. Holding your feet, use your forearms to press down on the insides of your legs and push them slowly downward. You should begin to feel a stretch in the groin. The other method is to stand up, with your feet spaced about four or five feet apart. Bend on of your knees and lean to that particular side. You will feel a stretch in the side of the groin on the straight leg.

If you're going to be doing any explosive movement or movement up steep grades, then you absolutely need to stretch out your calves. Calves are the muscles on the back of the leg just above the ankle. To stretch your calves properly, you need to get down in a push-up position on the ground. Take one of your feet and place it over the back ankle of the other leg. Using this foot, try to press the heel of your supporting leg down toward the ground. You will feel a stretch in the calves.

Next is your back. The back ties together a number of muscles and if you pull a muscle in your back, you can expect to be in a lot of pain for a good long time. Therefore, stretching back muscles is indispensable. How can one stretch an area of the body that has so many different muscles? There is a particular back stretch that I like to do that hits most areas of the back. Sit down on the ground and bend your right knee, placing your right foot on the left side of your left thigh. Next, take the upper part of your left arm and place it on the right side of your right thigh. Twist your upper torso to the right and look over your right shoulder, feeling a stretch in your upper, middle, and lower back. After you finish stretching this side, apply the approach to the opposite side. This process might sound complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy to remember.

There are a couple of overlooked stretches. The first is with a part of the body you might not consider very important to exercise. Shins, however, are one of the most frequent and irritating muscles that are pulled. If you expect to be running on any slopes, then it is imperative that you properly stretch out your shins beforehand. I won't go into the stretching here, because I wrote an article specifically on how to stretch your shins. Feel free to check it out. Another commonly overlooked muscle area are the arms. Generally, most exercise requires the legs more than the arms, so many people think that they can get by without stretching the arms too much. It's true that you have less of a chance pulling an arm muscle than you do of a leg muscle during exercise. But this doesn't mean you shouldn't stretch the arms. There are a few arm stretches you can do. One involves simple arm circles. One by one, slowly circle your arms in a wide arc, feeling a stretch in your shoulder girdle. Do about five arm circles per arm, then reverse the motion and do five more circles on each arm. Another stretch involved pulling one arm straight across your chest. Hold your other arm bent like a cradle to pull your straight arm into your chest. You will feel a stretch in the shoulder as well as the triceps.

I under no circumstances named every single stretch you could possibly do. However, if you perform these stretches properly, then you will reduce your chances for injury by quite a bit. Good luck, and exercise well!