Stretching exercises they are believed to be “must-haves” in any fitness program. However, these are often neglected and not given as much time or attention. Little do we know that such simple exercises are of great importance to us and to our health! It’s true, and I’m about to show you.
Doing stretching exercises before your actual workout heats up your entire body and keeps you from accidents and injuries. They improve the flexibility of your joints and muscles, allowing you to perform your training without problems. As you stretch, your physique becomes much more flexible, allowing you to perform a wider range of motion.
After a workout, stretching exercises relieve tight muscles and allow your body to cool down. Did you know that after a workout, your body will be able to extend even more than before your actual training program? This will actually make your body feel less tortured because it has been moved and pushed into ways it is not used to. However, keep in mind that you should not do post-stretch exercises if a muscle was distorted or strained while exercising, as this can make the injury worse.
Stretching exercises strengthen and increase the mass of your muscles. This is because blood circulation throughout the body increases with stretching of the muscles. When your muscles are exercising, part of your brain receives a muscle tension message from them. Therefore, it relays this message to another area of the brain that is responsible for allowing us to go through the physical responses to those messages. From there, you will feel your muscles tense.
These are some of the stretching exercises that can also relieve body and muscle stress. Make sure you get them done correctly so that you can get the results you want.
Hurdle stretches
Neck rolls
Forward curves
Quadriceps stretches
Spinal twists
Abdominal stretches
At Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training, he highly recommends static stretching exercises for specific body parts, as he believes they will help transform us into our dream bodies.
Psoas stretch
Hamstring stretch
Buttock stretch
Quadriceps stretch
Chest stretch
Shoulder stretch