Are YOU Stretching?.....

Alot of people skip stretching their muscles before exercise, not understanding how important it is. So many people say to me "why do I need to bother with warming up with muscle stretches first?... my muscles will warm up when I start to exercise"!!Well, there really is good reasoning for pre and post exercise muscle stretching. The good news is that it isn't just another form of torture. Although, many beginning a regular exercise program might think so. Stretching your muscles before beginning to exercise and afterwards, will actually result in your body feeling less stressed as it is moved and pushed in ways it is not used to due to a sedentary lifestyle. Whether you are just starting out or you are a fitness pro, stretching your muscles before and after engaging in an exercise program or fitness training regimen is VERY important!

Taking a few minutes to stretch and warm up your muscles before beginning exercise releases a lubricating substance from the cartilage within the joints, which aids the fluid motion of muscles and also keeps bones from scraping against one another at connection points in the body. Lubricated and fluid moving muscles have more flexibility which reduces your chances of injuring them.

Helping your muscles to become more flexible by stretching is not only beneficial for preventing injury during exercising, flexible muscles are able to distribute strength better which helps you in doing a variety of physical activities with more balance, using less energy, especially while lifting and bending. During an exercise routine you tense and stretch muscles, tensing and stretching muscles strengthens them and increases the mass of muscles. The circulation of blood throughout the body is also increased by stretching your muscles.

You know whether your muscles are getting a workout or not because when they are, an area of your brain receives a message of muscle tightening from them. The brain then relays this message to another part of the brain which is responsible for allowing us to experience physical responses to such messages, and you then feel your muscles get tighter. Most of us do not usually think about these processes of the brain that happening while we are exercising. What we do become aware of is the feeling of our muscles tightening.

After a good workout muscles and joints are heated up and tight and can stiffen and become sore a few hours later if you do not take a few minutes to cool them down with some post exercise stretching. This is opposite from warming up muscles and joints before exercising by slowly increasing the intensity and number of stretches. Instead you should slow things down and with ease stretch to relieve the tightness in muscles and joints that have built up during your workout.

The only time you shouldn't stretch is when you are injured!

So keep STRETCHING & stay healthy!!