Stretching - For many people, stretching is often skipped or done haphazardly and considered to take one away from the serious business of fitness. The truth is that stretching is an overlooked aspect of a well-rounded fitness routine and is very important in minimizing injury and in maintaining one’s long-term health and wellbeing.
Modern life is very stressful and we need high levels of energy and stamina to achieve what we need to achieve in our day. Exercise can provide stamina and energy. However, exercise need not be strenuous and grueling. Slow, gentle stretching can improve strength and flexibility as well as toning and firming the body.
We have over 400 different skeletal muscles. Our muscles respond to what we are doing physically, contracting when they are moving and working and lengthening when they are relaxed.
Our bodies are designed for purposeful movement. In prehistoric times, our bodies were constantly in motion in our day to day activities, whether this included hunting and gathering for food, protecting ourselves and young ones from danger or walking to the next camping site.
These days, we no longer need to be so physically active to meet our day to day needs. For most of us, unless we intentionally adopt a physically active lifestyle, regular movement is minimal. We drive, sit at computers all day, communicate via telephone and use remote controls for everything from the television to our garage roller doors.
For this reason, exercise is very important to keep us fit and healthy, and stretching is an integral part of this in our stationery lives. Sitting at an office desk for 8-10 hours per day is very hard on the body because muscles and connective tissue shorten or contract to mould the body to this static position.
Holding a phone crooked against your ear can lead to significant neck and shoulder discomfort. Spending hours in a tight-set posture as we type into a computer create tension and pain to our wrists, arms, shoulders and back. Tight local muscles also affect other parts of our bodies. Have you ever noticed how a tight neck or tense shoulders can lead to a headache? Or how tight hamstrings can lead to lower back pain?
Our emotional state also impacts on our muscles. Stress, anxiety, fear, worry, anger and resentment can also lead to tension and discomfort in our muscles. Have you noticed how your jaw line and neck can feel tighter when you are angry or stressed? How do your shoulders feel after a particularly stressful week in the office? We can often recognize stress in one’s face. Deep frown lines and tension in the jaw line can usually give an indication of one’s emotional state.
Basically, stretching helps warm muscles so they become more pliable and loose, and helping to prevent further injury. Stretching also helps to promote balance and keeps joints limber and to develop strength and stamina. Strength comes from holding a stretched position.
Leslie Kenton in her book “10 Steps to a New You” explains how stretching a particular muscle promotes improved circulation in the blood vessels of that muscle, providing essential nutrients and oxygen. “As soon as the stretch is finished, your muscle springs back into its normal size, it becomes bathed in fresh blood, which cleanses and nourishes it.
This is why an effective stretching routine brings with it a real sense of renewal for the whole body”. The other thing that stretching does is promote the release of built up toxins from muscles.
Stretching helps to keep a muscle at its optimal length, and this helps keep the body sleek, supple and toned. Every day, under the stress of repeated contractions, muscles tend to shorten as each individual muscle fiber becomes stronger.
What happens is that with each movement, there is a group of opposing muscles, which usually becomes stronger than the rest. This leads to muscle shortening on the side with the stronger fibers. Stretching promotes all fibers in the muscle relaxing to their optimal length.
Stretching also has profound emotional and psychological impacts. We have already mentioned briefly the link between emotional tension and tight musculature. A tight, haggard stressed face is a clear indication of the emotional state of an individual. Gently stretching muscles helps release such emotional tension and promote a sense of relaxation.
Stretching needs to be done slowly, precisely and gently, and it needs to be done with an awareness of one’s breathing. Regular stretching can work to tone the body, ease emotional, mental and physical tension and provide strength and stamina. After the inactivity of sleep, it feels great to wake up your body by giving it a good, long stretch, so a morning stretching routine is worth adopting.
1. Always warm muscles before you stretch. Cold muscles are likely to experience injury, so walk, move around or have a hot shower before you commence stretching. |
2. Don't strain or push a muscle too far. If a stretch hurts, there is something wrong. Stretching until you feel the stretch, the muscle will elongate without tearing. |
3. Be aware of your breath and use it to make your stretch more effective. Breathe in before you stretch and gently breathe out as you gently stretch each muscle. |
4. Hold the stretch. Some people like to bounce while they stretch. This can damage the muscle-tendon connection and can cause muscle tearing. |
5. Hold each stretch for 15 – 30 seconds or until you feel the tension in the muscle group has gone. |
6. Stretching twice daily, first thing in the morning and in the afternoon or early evening can keep muscles pliable and healthy. |
7. Always stretch before and after physical exercise such as aerobic exercise or weight training. |