Are You Stretching Enough?

Stretching is an important part of a workout routine, but it’s also the easiest part to skip over since it’s not the main event and when are we not pressed for time. The thing is that stretching can be crucial in some circumstances, since many exercises involve multiple contractions on a muscle. When it’s left in that state without a stretch it can stay tight which can immediately and over the longterm affect your posture. However, not all muscles need to be stretched extensively if they weren’t being used in a workout, so there that.

There are basically two main types of stretching which are static and dynamic. Static stretching is when you hold a pose for a while to stretch a certain muscle, and dynamic stretching is when you move quickly through the positions.

So when do you actually need to stretch? Some people like to stretch as a warmup before they work out, but some research has shown that using dynamic stretching to get the heart rate up before workouts is best and then using static stretching after workouts is best for loosening up the muscles. When you’re using static stretching following a workout, you should be focusing on the muscles that were used during the workout.

This is also more time effective and makes sticking with a cooling down habit easier. However, there is more to a good cool down routine than just doing some static stretching. The goal is to get the circulation flowing as you decrease your heart rate, which makes finishing the workout safer and also helps to cut down on any soreness you might experience the next day. (And less soreness means more effective workouts when you get back out there.)

If you were doing a high intensity cardio activity doing some walking at the end to cool down, and a lot of guys benefit from using a foam roller. A foam roller can really take your stretching game to the next level since instead of just elongating the muscles you can actually safely break down the knots in muscles. (You can find where the knots are by feeling for the spots that feel tender when you put pressure on them.) A foam roller allows you to perform self-myofascial release which can help speed up the recovery of your muscles faster than if you were just doing normal stretching alone.

Keep in mind that while the body is pretty effective at recovering, it does the best that it can do based on what you’re doing to it. So when we overtrain certain muscles, or repeat a single kind of cardio activity day, skip days off, or don’t rest up or feed our bodies properly then we’re not always going to be in peak condition. The best way to avoid injuries over the long term is to ensure that our body is given every opportunity to recover in between our workouts, and stretching is one of those opportunities.