Friday, March 13, 2009

The Benefits of Stretching For Your Health and Fitness

By Brian

Your body is meant to be able to bend down low and pick up something on the floor, or reach something high up on a shelf. This is all down to the flexibility you have in your body to bend and flex.

Learning to stretch and increasing your flexibility will make these tasks alot simpler to do (if you were finding them hard to do in the first place) and you should definately give it a try.

Stretching? What Is It?

If you extend your body to full length or simply part of it, this is considered stretching. Straightening or stretching the structure of the limbs is also considered stretching.

How Should I Do It?

* Regardless of what age you are, stretching can be done by all.

* With age, your degrees of flexibility vary and also too with frequency of practice. Stretching more allows you to lose less flexibility as you ago.

* You can incorporate stretching into your day to day activities and it does not require much of your time. What's more it should be done every day.

* You should stretch before taking on any vigorous exercises and is important to a training routine.

* The most common stretch done by athletes is the sit and reach, where you sit on the floor, legs together and pointing outwards and in front of them. You then bend and try and touch your toes with the tips of your fingers.

* It is best to do all your stretching in a span of 10 minutes as this will give the body enough oppurunity to move around and flex your muscles. You are then more prepared for more difficult and harder muscle movements.

How Does Stretching Benefit Me?

* Increases Your Movement - You have more movemenet capability as your muscle and tendon lengths increase with stretching. This will help you avoid injuries from occuring.

*Improve Your Skills - You can improve your basketball, football, tennis skills or become more active in life in general with a greater range of movement.

* Injury Prevention - Recovering faster and better if you get injured, reducing the likelihood of pulling a muscle or tearing and tendon can be done when muscles and joints are more flexible.

* Reduces Tension in the Muscles - If you regularly stretch, it is less likely for your muscles to contract and build up muscle tension or pain.

* Gives You More Energy - Knowing that your body is more capable of doing physical activities gives you a more energy as you are more driven and less likely to sit and do nothing.

Incorporating stretching into your day to day life has its benefits and you can't dispute that. It doesn't require much effort and after you've done it for a while it becomes routine. Your fitness is important, so do what you need to to keep your body healthy. - 16887

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