Flexibility-Stretching
Flexibility-stretching is one of the five components of fitness. Most people will acknowledge that it is vital to overall health and wellness. Yet it is the most neglected, underrated and forgotten portion of fitness training. Stretching is found in programs such as yoga, pilates, karate and various sports. To better understand the flexibility-stretching principle you need to first understand some basic anatomy. Simply put, bones provide the body structure, joints allow the limbs to bend and muscles provide the movement. All muscles, regardless of whether they are in the top half or bottom half of the body, cross over a joint. This is what allows us to bend our elbows and straighten our knees. Flexibility can be very specific to each joint. You may be flexible at every joint in the body except the hamstrings or hip region. You may also find that your flexibility problems are isolated to the right and left sides of the body. For example, after years of playing a racquet sports you will find that the right shoulder girdle and muscles of the right side of the back are extremely tight for a right handed person. Quite commonly side to side imbalances pose more of a problem than a top to bottom imbalance. Why is flexibility-stretching important? Not only does stretching feel good and relax the mind and body it provides proven health benefits:
How do you become more flexible? The key to gaining flexibility is consistency. Unlike resistance and aerobic training, a flexibility program needs to be done everyday or close to it. There are various forms of stretching that can be used in the program. It is important to remember that some of these techniques are not appropriate for the beginner. Static stretching - is a slow and controlled stretch you hold at the point you first feel the tension begin. The muscle is now placed in a lengthened position and is held 25-30 seconds. Passive stretching - is when someone else is providing and holding the stretch for you. Ballistic stretching - a bounce or jerking is used to help you move further into the stretch. This type of stretching is very dangerous and should not be performed by beginners. Dynamic (functional) stretching - you use the momentum of exercise and muscle force to stretch the muscle. This is very useful as a sports or exercise warm up. When is the best time to stretch? Flexibility-stretching is best done when the body is warm. It can be incorporated directly into the cool down of your fitness programs. For the days you are not working out but would like to add flexibility-stretching to your daily routine, you must have some sort of warm up. The alternative option would be to do dynamic stretches on off days. You may be wondering if there are circumstances that would make stretching counterproductive. The following is a list of conditions that could potentially be harmful if you participated in a stretching program:
If any of the above conditions are present you should have written consent from your physician before continuing or beginning a flexibility-stretching program. It may also be beneficial to have a professional evaluation, to help you with the decision of which muscles need stretching. Chronic pain in a particular area of the body is not a true indication that the muscle is tight. For example the chest muscles could be extremely tight, which in turn would put the opposing back muscles in a chronic stretched position. This could easily explain the pain felt across the top of the shoulders, shoulder blades and lower neck region. Stretching the back to remove this pain would be counterproductive and do more harm than good. The muscles in the front of the body in the chest region need to be stretched instead.
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