Do you stretch after working out? I’ll be honest, when I was younger I kind of thought it was a waste of time and didn’t do much stretching. These days I often spend more time stretching after my workout than I do on the actual workout. That’s because I finally realized how important it is in achieving and maintaining my fitness goals.
If you don’t currently stretch after working out, or you do, but just want to know what you’re getting out of it, keep reading to find out why it’s so crucial.
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Why Stretch After a Workout
After a workout your muscles and tendons are all warmed up and will stretch much easier than when you’re cold. Have you ever noticed that you’re more flexible after you’ve been active? Stretching while the muscles are warm lowers the risk of pulling a muscle and injuring yourself.
I know plenty of people think you should stretch before a workout to prevent injury, but it shouldn’t be the same type of stretching before and after. The stretching you do before a workout should be more active, not static, stretch and hold type moves. You should be warming and loosening up the joints by moving through range of motion (ROM) exercises before you start your workout. That will help prevent injury during exercise.
The Benefits Of Stretching
How often do you workout and then feel really sore within the next day or two? That soreness comes from a build up of lactic acid in the muscles. If you want to help reduce that feeling, stretching after working out will help with that. Stretching can reduce the accumulation of lactic acid throughout the body.
Most of us already know that stretching is used to increase or at least maintain flexibility, but why is that so important? Staying flexible can boost performance, prevent injury, and allow us to move in the ways that we need to so we can do the things we want and need to in our lives.
Regular static stretching exercise has shown that it improves force and performance in activities. It`s underlying mechanism is that regular stretching induces muscle hypertrophy. So, in other words, stretching on a consistent basis can actually create larger/stronger muscles.
You need to stretch after working out to prevent injury by improving posture and body alignment. When we have stiff joints and our body isn’t able to move properly it leads to injuries, aches, and pains. Our body is a whole system of moving parts. So, even if one joint isn’t moving properly it can lead to problems in other parts of the body. If our hip joint doesn’t have the ROM that it’s supposed to have, we compensate with the surrounding joints, like the knee. Therefore, decreased flexibility in the hip can lead to pain and injury in the knee as well, for example.
A common reason for low back pain is having tight hamstrings. When you have pain, you’re less likely to exercise, which helps keep you healthy and flexible as well.
Staying flexible improves the way we move. When our muscles and joints are tight we have more trouble just doing every day normal things without hurting ourselves, like picking up a heavy bag of groceries off the floor. Not to mention the things that we want to do just because they’re fun and we enjoy them, when our body doesn’t hurt.
Flexibility is important in reducing the risk of injury during sudden unexpected movements as well. Sometimes we have to move out of the way quickly or catch ourselves when thrown off balance. If your muscles aren’t able to handle the sudden stretch that gets triggered by those movements you’ll be more likely to end up with a pulled muscle (which causes pain and temporary loss of function).
If you stretch after working out you will feel younger and healthier as well as look that way too. Our joints and muscles naturally get stiffer if we don’t do anything to prevent it as we age. I’m sure you’ve noticed how many people in their older years start to look hunched over and aren’t able to move as well. Stretching can help improve your posture, making you look younger and taller.
When and How You Should Stretch
To really get the most benefit from stretching after working out, you should do it every time. Focus mainly on the muscles you worked on during your exercise session, but getting a full body stretch is recommended. To be effective, you need to hold each stretch for 30-60 seconds each. The stretch shouldn’t be painful, however you might feel slight discomfort. If you are stretching and don’t feel much of anything, you probably need to stretch a little further.
Take it slow, stop and hold when you feel it. Hopefully you’re exercising and stretching most days of the week. Even if you just go for a walk, stretch out those legs a little afterwards.
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