Stretching is SO very important to your fitness routine. I am bringing this up because I used to skip my stretching. It was so very easy to make excuses: I’m late/tired, or I’ll do it later. I have found that flexibility is a HUGE part of my overall fitness. The more I stretch, the better I feel. AND, the more I stretch, the more I’m able to do and the further I’m able to push myself.
I think that it is very important to remember this: muscles need to be stretched in order for them to grow and improve. Another benefit to stretching is that with greater range of motion, you are far less likely to injure yourself. I say this knowing that there are times when I should have stretched and didn’t…and ended up hurting myself. When I first started my fitness journey, I was too “busy” to take the time to stretch. And then I sprained my ankle and pulled a muscle in my calf. I was out of commission for weeks! Since then, I make it a priority to stretch. If you are new to fitness, SparkPeople is one of my favorite sites, and they have some good stretches to get you going (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/exercise_demos.asp?exercise_type=stretch).
It is important to remember that there are 2 different types of stretching: dynamic and static. BOTH are very important to building healthy muscles. Dynamic stretching is the type of stretching your body needs to warm up. It’s stretching through motion, moving while you warm up your muscles. You NEVER want to do static stretches as a warm up. You may end up hurting yourself becuase your muscles are cold. You want to incorporate static stretching (long, deep stretches) AFTER you workout so that your muscles are warm. Another fact worth mentioning: when you are doing static stretches, it is important to stretch for at least 30 seconds. Your muscles have a catch in them that will prevent you from injuring yourself and after 15 seconds, you can go a little deeper.
Okay…I’ll get off my soapbox now….
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I clicked a link to your blog from SP. I’m not exactly sure where I found you on SP, but that’s where I found you.
This article is sooooo valuable to me. I knew it was important to stretch and I do try to stretch every day, even if I don’t hit the gym or do any working out, but I didn’t know there was a particular type of stretching for pre-work out and post-work out. WOW. Thank you!! Now I’ll start doing things the right way.