Archive for the 'Performance Stretching' Category
Staying physically active is one of the few ways to reliably prevent or significantly improve some common pain conditions, including low back pain, arthritis, and even migraine headache. Chronic pain conditions tend to start a vicious cycle: You have a painful condition, exercise makes it hurt more, you stop exercising, your pain increases, and you continue to avoid exercise, we all have heard this excuse before.
Staying physically active can help prevent that cycle and using that excuse from ever happening. Muscles that are supple and stretched out by exercise are less prone to injury and keep joints healthier. Physical activity also improves stamina, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular health, which may ease pain that occurs when a lack of oxygen causes tissue damage. And physical activity combats obesity, which is a risk factor for osteoarthritis of the knee or joint. In addition, a small German study published several years ago suggested that people with migraine headaches tend to be less physically fit than people who don’t suffer migraines, although the headaches may explain why they are not physically fit rather than vice versa. The type of exercise you choose to do on a regular basis in order to stay fit is really up to you. As long as you continue to move consistently for 30 minutes a day.
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Strength training is about burning calories, transforming your body, and building and maintaining a certain level of functional strength. You might not be challenging yourself enough with the weights during many of your workouts if:
- The current weight you are lifting isn’t a challenge or causing a sweat. Strength training is meant to be nerve recking, because the whole point is to “overload” your muscles so they get stronger. If the weight you are lifting isn’t as challenging as it used to be (or not at all), then it is time to increase the resistance.
- You have never increased the weight you lift since high school. When you first started strength training, then the weight you lifted was a starting weight. Continuing to progress in strength training is essential to getting the most out of your workouts and transforming your body! That means lifting more weight is crucial, especially as you get stronger over time.
- The progress and changes has now come to a stop, or your now in a plateau. Without making your muscles work harder than they’re accustomed to, they won’t get stronger. As you train, your muscles will grow stronger in order to meet the demands you are placing on them. So if you keep offering them the same workload, they will keep working the same amount, and progression comes to a grinding halt.
This is one of the most common bad habits of gym enthusiasts! You finally committed yourself to a fitness routine, and you don’t want to waste any valuable time. Often individuals jump right into exercising without considering warming up or stretching because it seems meaningless and a waste of time.
Warming up and stretching should be the foundation of your exercise. They should be viewed as a transition into exercise, allowing your body and mind to prepare for strength training, running, endurance, etc. This is your reward from a proper warm-up/stretch and cool-down/stretch:
- Improved coordination
- Your muscles and connective tissue loosen to prepare for the stress of exercise
- Oxygen and blood flow to your muscles and connective tissue increases, providing fuel for better muscular performance
- Tension in your body decreases
- Breathing patterns establish, helping relax the body during exercise
- Joints are lubricated to allow for better performance
- Muscle soreness is prevented and/or reduced during and after your workout
- Quicker reaction time
- Improved posture
You’ve probably exercised without warming up, your stretching is non-existent, and maybe nothing horrible happened. It may seem unnecessary, but consistently skipping it will limit your results and put yourself at risk for injury. You could even be injured without even knowing it since you may not feel any pain right away.
The knee is the most susceptible to injury of any joint in the body. Nearly 50 million Americans have knee problems, either from athletic injuries or simple everyday wear and tear. For those who already have knee problems, exercising the area surrounding the joint will help make it stronger and less susceptible to injury. Here are some exercises you can do to stretch the knee area:
Chair knee extension: Sitting in a chair, rest your foot on another chair so that the knee is slightly raised. Gently push the raised knee toward the floor using only leg muscles. Hold the stretch for 5 to 10 seconds, and release. Repeat this stretch 5 times on each leg.
Heel slide knee extension: Lie on your back, with the left knee bent and the left foot flat on floor. Slowly slide the left heel away from your body so that both legs are parallel. Hold the stretch for 5 to 10 seconds, and return to starting position. Repeat this stretch 5 times on each leg.
Knee flexion: Sitting in a chair, loop a long towel under your foot (which is resting on the floor). Gently pull on the towel with both hands to bend the knee, raising your foot 4 or 5 inches off the floor. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds, then release. Repeat this stretch 5 times on each leg.
Stretching your ankles, hip flexors, and adductors for 22 seconds before a heavy squat, lunge, or power lift will allow you to lift heavier. Mobilizing the ankle joints allows you sit deeper in the bottom of the squat or the pull from the floor.
If your stretching your hip flexors (the muscles above your thigh) it will help to prevent them from inhibiting the glutes. The glutes is where all your power comes from, since it is the largest muscle in your body.
When stretching, just get into any position in which you feel a pull on the muscle, hold it for at least 22 seconds. This will ensure that the tissue being stretched, will elongate over the long term.
As you improve your flexibility, the stretch won’t feel as intense, and then you can gradually increase the range of motion.
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