Browse > Home / Fitness and Exercise / Benefits of Stretching

Benefits of Stretching

If you want to get fitter, or try to lose some weight, the first point of call is your diet. You decide what you should cut back on and what you should add to your diet to achieve your goals. The second thing that you will probably consider is a good exercise program. In most peoples views a good exercise program will initially consist of some type of cardio exercise. After this some people may try to incorporate some sort of weight training regime.

An essential part of any exercise program is often ignored by most people. This essential part is stretching. Some people may go through the motions with a couple of minutes of stretching before a workout, but most people do not realise the wonderful benefits that stretching can give them. Stretching along with cardio and weight training should be considered as being a vital part of any exercise program.

The first thing to remember is that you should always have a good warm up before stretching. This is because a warm muscle is always going to be more flexible than a cold one, and this will avoid the risk of any injury. The second thing is to make sure that you do not push too far when stretching. Always go to the point where you can feel the pull and not to the point where it becomes painful.

As children we are naturally pretty flexible but this changes as we get older. Our muscles begin to get tighter and this is why it is so easy to pull a muscle, or often wake up in the mornings feeling sore and stiff if we haven’t slept with a good posture. As children the bulk of our world consists of physical play. We run around and move about in ways that stretch our bodies. When we get older all this stops. You rarely hear of children complaining of back pain or pulled hamstrings.

You should have a good stretching program consisting of 10 to 15 minutes. You will get most value from stretching if you do it after your normal workout. The benefits of stretching are many, and here are just a few:

When you exercise you are basically stressing your muscles. It is this stress that is going to make your muscles stronger or give you muscles endurance. Stretching after a workout is going to reduce the stress on your muscles because stretching will allow your blood to reach the stressed muscles more quickly, and it is your blood that carries the nutrients that are going to repair you. You will have less soreness in your muscles the day after a workout, allowing them to recover more quickly.

Read more » Pages: 1 2

May 1, 2008 | Category: Fitness and Exercise 

More Articles

Recent Articles

You might also be interested in the following articles:

  • Yoga as a Stress Management Technique
    • Yoga is a very good practice for relieving your stress. It offers relaxation, proper breathing exercises, and different kinds of positions for flexibility. The techniques and practices of Yoga can help in relieving the physical and psychological negative effects from stress. Yoga can cause positive effect to the nervous system
  • Benefits Of Wellness Programs At Work
    • Most of us spend the majority of our day at work usually chained to our desk. Wellness programs at the office offer many benefits to both employees and employers. - Healthy-Woman.net Editor Have you looked to see if your employer is offering any wellness programs at your job? This can
  • Walking Meditation Can Double Your Health Benefits
    • by Keira Adams You probably know that walking is a great way to stay healthy physically. It provides cardiovascular benefits, burns calories, and increases blood flow to various parts of your body that need it. However, have you ever thought of combining the time you spend walking with spiritual and mental
  • 12 Easy Steps To Get Over Exercise Procrastination
    • by Fit n Fabulous Does it seem like every year you seem to put on a bit more weight? Has the gasping for breath at the top of a flight of stairs made you think about trying to improve your fitness level, or lack of?
  • Benefits of Vitamin B Complex
    • B vitamins are important to us and are water soluable. They are in whole grains, nuts, eggs, meats, brewer's yeast, green leaf veggies and other foods. When we are deficient in any of the components of this complex, we can get a number of different health problems. For instance, a
  • Five-Minute Meditation Video
    • Have you been wanting to add meditation into your daily life, but keep thinking you just don't have the time? Check out the Five Minute Meditation video below - if you've got just five minutes to spare each day, you can begin to incorporate a daily meditation practice into your
  • Facial Yoga, Is This The New Face Lift?
    • By Katie Carwell While it is undeniable that the benefits of yoga are endless and far reaching many are still skeptical of a new trend being called yoga facial toning. The yoga element will definitely produced positive results but does it actually give you a face lift without the surgery? This

Comments

Got something to say?