Introduction:
Now that you are a seasoned athlete and have had experience with stretching, it's important to know the different types of stretching. You'll be surprised at just how much flexibility you lose during training or competition, but thankfully there is a variety of stretches you can do to help you regain that lost range.
Flexibility and stretching are two very important topics that many people overlook. They should actually be incorporated into your workout routine on a regular basis, or even once per week. When you focus on flexibility, you learn how to sit, stand, walk and move in ways that feel comfortable as opposed to uncomfortable. This ultimately leads to improved performance, injury prevention, and ultimately an overall better quality of life.
What are the different types of stretching?
Here are some common types:
Static Stretching: This type of stretching involves holding the stretches for 5-30 seconds. It’s used to warm up muscles before moving on to dynamic stretching.
Dynamic Stretching: This type of stretching involves moving through your range of motion while keeping a consistent stretch, usually for 30-60 seconds. Dynamic stretches should be performed after static stretches because they work more muscles than static stretches.
Pre-Exercise Stretching: This type of stretching focuses on loosening up your body before you start your workout, usually for about 10 minutes or more.
Post-Exercise Stretching: This type of stretching focuses on keeping your muscles loose after exercise, usually for 1-2 minutes or until you feel a light burn in your muscles.
Why do I need to stretch before my workout?
There are two main reasons why you should stretch before you work out.
First, stretching can help increase flexibility and reduce muscle soreness after workouts. Stretching also helps prevent injuries and improves overall performance in the gym.
Second, proper flexibility training can help improve your overall performance during your workout session. For example, by improving your flexibility, you will be able to move more freely through the range of motion during each exercise. This means that you will get more bang for your buck because you’re using more muscle groups during your workouts.
Because stretching opens up your muscles, joints, and tendons so that they can get ready for the workout ahead.
The benefits of stretching include:
Preventing injury by loosening up muscles and joints before you start exercising.
Improving flexibility and range of motion.
Reducing muscle soreness after exercise.
Why do I need to stretch after my workout?
Stretching is an important part of your workout routine. Stretching helps you prevent injuries and allows you to have more flexibility in your body. Some people stretch after their workouts to help them recover faster and feel better. Stretching can also be beneficial after injury or in some cases, to prevent future injuries from occurring.
If you don’t stretch properly, your muscles may not get the full benefit of the workout that they should have gotten. It is especially important for athletes who are involved in sports where there is a lot of running or jumping around.
The best way to stretch is by using a foam roller or lacrosse ball on each muscle group twice a day for 20-30 seconds each time. Another option is using a yoga mat and doing poses until you feel ready to move on to another one then repeat this cycle several times throughout the day.
How often should I stretch?
Stretching is a key part of your warm-up routine, but you may find yourself wondering how often to stretch. If you’re like most people, you don’t want to become a fidgety ball of energy with no flexibility left over.
There are two main types of stretching: warm-ups and flexibility workouts.
Warm-ups help prepare your body for activity so it can adjust to the demands of physical activity without injury or pain. For example, when you do an easy run on the treadmill at a lower intensity level than you normally would for your usual workout, you may experience muscle soreness the next day. That soreness is the result of muscle damage from the intense workout and is caused by contracting muscles with too much force before they have had time to recover from previous activity (or lack thereof).
Stretching helps prevent this damage by loosening tight muscles and improving the range of motion in joints prior to exercise or training. Warm-ups also help prepare your body for exercise by increasing circulation in the tissue and reducing the swelling that may occur in some areas after exercise (such as your feet).
Conclusion:
As you may have seen from the chart above, static stretching and dynamic stretching can both serve as effective warm-ups for a workout. But if it's the flexibility that you're after, static stretching is definitely the way to go. Dynamic stretching is only useful when you're already warmed up, so if your goal is to get limber, stick to the former and forget about the latter.
If you want to reap the benefits of dynamic flexibility training, choose a warm-up that you are familiar with and stick with it. Doing warm-ups with variety can work well in your workout, as long as you don't forget the importance of keeping your core engaged throughout.
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