Have you ever caught yourself saying, "Oh yeah, I'm
not flexible. I can't even touch my toes!" a
nd
leaving it at that? Did you know that not only can this be
changed, but doing so is essential to your remaining active,
injury-free, and at your peak abilities in your favorite sport,
especially as you age?
As the field of fitness matures, training methods are becoming
smarter and more sophisticated. Gone are the days when we threw
ourselves into blisteringly grueling workouts, focused on just one or
two activities, and treated the body like a jigsaw puzzle ("Buff up
those biceps!" "A chiseled rear end in 14 days!"). In their place,
we now have a more balanced definition of optimal health and fitness, a
deeper understanding of the complexity of movement, and an appreciation
that long-term, sustainable, sport and fitness success depends on BOTH
smart training AND smart recovery.
Stretching -- which includes both static positions and exercises --
actually falls under the umbrella of both training and recovery.
In training terms, stretching helps to set the proper foundation
for fitness success, enabling you to address muscle imbalances (example:
weakness on one side of a joint, stiffness on the other), improve your
balance, create a strong core and low back, and re-teach your body how
to move with maximum efficiency and minimum stress on the joints.
In the recovery sense, proper stretching helps muscles relax and
elongate following an intense workout. The very nature of
exercising for muscle improvement means the muscle must be stressed to a
degree that inspires growth and adaptation. This is natural and
essential, but what comes with it is wear and tear on the muscle, as
well as inflammation. When we're young, the body is able to handle
this burden somewhat easily, but as early as age 25, we start to see
diminished recovery without our taking steps to help the body in this
regard. This is where stretching starts to play a more important
role, especially after age 40. By then, it's absolutely essential
to counteract the effects -- good and bad -- of exercise through
well-chosen stretches.
As if we need any other reason, even if you don't engage in
vigorous workouts or even exercise at all, the mere fact that we spend
much of our day sitting means the body is exposed to constant repetitive
stress. Sitting places the body in a state of flexion, resulting
in certain muscles becoming tighter and stiffer, and other muscles
becoming weaker. Streching, even just 2-3 corrective stretches
done on a regular basis, can reverse this effect, helping to offset the
kind of slow deterioration that can sneak up on you until there's been
irreversible damage to the back, knees and neck.
In short, stretching is a tool we can't live without if we wish to
stay active!
Let
your Flexibility Coach show you how....today!
