We have all been victims to fallen stretching routines that have been put on the back burner and saved for a later date. The pattern of taking stretching out of our day-to-day activities becomes a revolving door of lower back pain, achy muscles, and knee and joint issues. Stretching can improve flexibility, prevent injury, and improve our overall quality to life when starting the day. Common to those who are inactive, stretching affects everyone that range from athletes, to your standard everyday workers. The world of information is at our fingertips as content that was once hard to learn can be easily obtained from a simple instructional video. The body is a unique physical structure that must be treated properly as the knowledge available today could prevent serious issues and lead to a longer, healthier life.
Before moving forward, lets exam the two types of stretching that can help improve the quality of our bodies, static and dynamic. Static stretching is used to stretch the muscles while the body is at rest, consisting of various techniques to gradually lengthen a muscle to the point of a slight discomfort in order to maintain flexibility. A static stretch is held anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to help our tension receptors and allow the muscle to be stretched to greater lengths than some would have never imagined.
Dynamic stretching is geared toward athletes, but should not be ruled out by anyone as the importance to dynamic stretching is to push the muscles past the normal range of motion that one is used to. This prepares the body for exertion, mainly in sports performance as blood and oxygen are circulated throughout the soft tissue. The benefits to dynamic stretching are creating the simulation an athlete would use in a game. Used to improve performance, dynamic stretching provides explosive movements that will effectively warm up the limbs and prepare for any challenges ahead.
Implementing both types of stretching into your daily routine will improve mobility along with overall movement throughout the day. The increased circulation will allow a healthy flow of blood and nutrients to spread across the body that will reduce soreness after an activity. When the body increases circulation it will also improve flexibility as the risk of injury in the tendons and muscles will actually reduce. When our flexibility is increased it can actually lessen our rest periods when active and improve our heart rate. As the heart rate is improved the level of stress our body undergoes will decrease as well. Stress today is something that is unavoidable, finding something that will help lessen the blow is always a positive. When we stress, our muscles contract, causing a negative effect on our entire body including our mood. The stretching of the muscles can clear the mind while simultaneaously providing a benefit to the body without thinking. A common stress factor that affects the body is lower back pain. Lower back pain is experienced by 31 million Americans who wake up with aches, pains, and a limited range of motion caused by a short jolt and sports related injury. Stretching can take care of a majority of the 31 million Americans suffering from this. The pain has a negative result on our quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors, and of course, lower back. Stretching every part of these muscles can reduce the pain and benefit the comfort of living.
Stretching is a form of exercise that should be taken seriously. It is smart to start your day off right out of bed with some sort of stretching, especially when engaging in any type pf physical activity. Athletes can have an increase in performance that will give them the competitive edge with lack of injury. Sports injuries are becoming a household name, accounting for 2 million injuries for high school athletes, 3.5 million youth athletes under the age of 14, and 30,000 hospital visits each year. Spread across all sports, athletes need to be a part of the solution and communicate with coaches and their sports doctors in utilizing stretching routines to help prevent injury.