Tuesday, January 13, 2009

5 Muscle Stretching Tips to Avoid Injury and Improve Flexibility

By Torri Tompson

I'm sure that everyone knows that it is important to properly prepare your body before doing any strenuous exercise. By stretching your muscles, you can help avoid serious injuries that are not only painful, but can also impede your performance meaning it takes much longer for you to lose weight.

I also recommend that people stretch before and after any exercise, so be sure to do your stretching before you start using your treadmill! This will help to increase your flexibility, putting less stress on your muscles. Stretching after your workout is important too to help prevent pulled muscles and other injuries.

Here are some excellent ways to ensure that your muscles are not injured while using your treadmill:

1. The first mistake many people make is to try and stretch too far. If you are in pain then you have stretched too far! It is much better to stretch to a position that you find comfortable, and then hold this stance for between 15 - 20 seconds.

2. Breathe through your stretches. Some people hold their breath during their stretch routines, but when you practice deep breathing exercises, it helps you perform a deeper stretch for your muscles.

3. Stretching is often seen as the warm up phase of exercise, but it's really important to warm your muscles before you stretch them, so it's a great idea to walk around or jog on the spot for a few minutes before you start to stretch.

4. A warm bath or shower and a stretch are excellent ways to end an exercise session. The warm water of the bath or shower will help to relax your muscles and the stretching will help avoid injury and will feel great!

5. You may have seen professional athletes bouncing while they stretch, but you should never ever do this! Bouncing during stretching exercises can actually cause serious injuries to your muscles rather than prevent injuries.

A lot of people assume that a treadmill will only exercise the leg muscles when in fact it delivers a full body workout. While it is important to stretch your calf muscles, quadriceps, and hamstrings it is also extremely important to stretch muscles in other areas as well such as the shoulders, neck, back and abs.

Don't just bend over and hang, trying to touch your toes. Add some additional stretches, such as the splits, lunges, and calf stretches where you stand on the edge of a step or curb and drop your heels to the point right before it becomes uncomfortable.

When stretching you should always make sure your movements and slow and deliberate - it actually helps to keep some tension in the muscles to get the most out of your stretch. And remember, you should never stretch to the point where it becomes painful.

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