Sunday, March 1, 2009

Why You Should Stretch For Your Fitness

By Brian

Are you having problem picking up things from the floor or reaching up high to get something off a shelf? Well that means you are not flexibile and you should consider stretching to improve your flexibility.

If you are having difficulty doing simple tasks like this, you need to learn how to stretch better. These tasks may be simple, but you take them for granted, until you find it hard doing them.

So, What Exactly Is Stretching?

Extending your body to a flull length, part of it, or straightening or stretching your limbs is considered stretching.

Streching? How Should I Do It?

* Regardless of what age you are, stretching can be done by all.

* The degrees of flexibility however, vary with age and frequency of practice. The more you stretch, the less flexibility you will lose as you age.

* You can incorporate stretching into your day to day activities and it does not require much of your time. What's more it should be done every day.

* In preperation for a training routine or vigorous exercises it is important to stretch. It should be done first before any sport and is essential.

* A very common stretch athletes do is the sit and reach, where the sit on the floor with their legs extended out in front of them. They then reach for their toes with the fingertips.

* You should stretch for roughly 10 minutes before exercise. This is enough time to allow your muscles to flex in preperation for hard muscle movements you are planning to do.

How Does Stretching Benefit Me?

* Increases Your Movement Capability - The more you do your exercises, the more you muscles and tendon lengths increase. Your range of movement follows suit with this, allowing the limbs and joints to move around far before an injury can take place.

*Improve Your Skills - You can improve your basketball, football, tennis skills or become more active in life in general with a greater range of movement.

* Injury Prevention - Recovering faster and better if you get injured, reducing the likelihood of pulling a muscle or tearing and tendon can be done when muscles and joints are more flexible.

* Relaxes Muscles - Your muscles are much more relaxed in general if you regularly stretch them out.

* Gives You Energy - Having the knowledge that you can accomplish more things physically will keep you active and energized as you'll want to do those physical things.

Doing stretches doesn't take much time for you to do. It can be merged into your day to day activities and after a while, it becomes second nature. The benefits of stretching keep your mind and body healthy and is good for overall fitness, so make it a part of your life today! - 17944

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