Today I am going to talk about the right way to stretch.
au.lifestyle.yahoo.com
Stretching is NOT just a two minute session trying to touch your toes and then you are done.
The first thing to remember about stretching is that it is not a question of forcing the muscle to stretch like you did when you were at school.
It is about a controlled movement.
By controlled I mean slow and deliberate.
The first you need to do is warm up the muscle.
If you try to stretch a cold muscle, you will just injure yourself.
If you are going to stretch your legs for instance, spend around 5 minutes walking first.
Warming up increases the blood flow to the muscle and makes it more elastic.
Once you have warmed up, you need to do what are called dynamic stretches.
Dynamic
stretching means slow, controlled movements rather than remaining still and
holding a stretch.
You could do things like Goose-step march: Slowly lift your leg straight out in front of you,
alternating as you walk with your normal stride length.
While others may think
you're doing a Monty Python skit, it is an effective hamstring stretch.
If you are a bit more athletic you could consider doing butt kicks.
As you jog, bend one knee and lift it behind you as if
you were trying to kick yourself in the butt.
This stretches
the quadriceps.
This will improve the flexibility in your legs and make walking easier.
A lot of people do not move around enough and spend a lot of time sitting.
As you get older this causes your muscles to shorten and become less flexible.
In order to prevent this you should spend around 15 minutes each just doing some sort of stretching to help keep your muscles flexible.
Remember, if you do not use it, you will lose it.
So put is a bit of effort every day.
speak to tomorrow.
Stephen Hart
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