Physical Fitness: Stretching

I don't know anyone who really likes stretching. Most of us do it as an after thought like,"Oh yeah, better stretch a little before I have fun". We try to remember things we did in gym class and awkwardly perform random stretches some amount of time. Yes, stretching doesn't get the attention it deserves.

From researching stretching exercises, I found out that there is some dispute about the usefulness of stretching. There have been studies that say warming up before exercising prevents injury, not stretching. The reason is that stretching does not help range of motion when your body is cold. Stretching does help with increasing the range of motion for muscle groups once the body is warm. So, the best method of preparing to exercise is to do a 5 minute warm up and then do your stretch routine.

One benefit to stretching that cannot be denied is flexibility. Regular stretching will increase your flexibility in the areas you stretch. You want to hold each move for about 5 to 10 seconds, feeling tension and not pain. A good stretch routine should last about five minutes and hit all the major joints and muscle groups. You want to make sure you stretch your hamstrings, shoulders, groin, back, and neck. Find the exercises that work for you and do the same stretches in the same order each time to gain consistency. Stretching once or twice a day should be the goal, but start out about three times a week and build your way up.

The funny thing is you never know how tight you are until you start stretching. Oh man!