During the early years of many individuals lives they were taught to stretch before going through with any activity. Most of the time these rules were taught in school during physical education classes. Teachers would often make their students stand in a circle and stretch for 5 to 10 minutes before they could start their daily activity. Research has shown that they have been teaching these rules in vain, however; because stretching before working out has shown to weaken muscles. Many individual’s were taught the importance of stretching before working out by way of static stretching.

This type of stretching involves holding a certain stretch for about 30 seconds and then releasing. The reason behind many people thinking this stretch was beneficial was because after the 30 seconds the same stretched seems to be easier to do. The reality, however, is that the individual who is stretching has just gotten used to the discomfort the stretch brings them.

Researchers have shown that when athletes complete a set of static stretching before working out their muscles weaken. They have proven this by testing how much force an individual’s leg can exert before and after the stretching. These studies have shown that the muscles in these athletes legs can be decreased by as much as 30 percent. These weakened muscles can also stay in their weakened state for anywhere up to 30 minutes. Although static stretching has shown not to be beneficial there is another type of stretching for your muscles that can help.

This type of stretching is called dynamic stretching and involves stretching during movement. The right type of stretching should help make muscles and tendons more loose. Having loose muscles and tendons help better an individual’s range of motion. If their tissues are not compliant before one starts their exercise injuries can take place. Dynamic stretching also helps to increase the blood flow throughout the body. Having good blood flow is crucial to exercise because at rest muscles stiffen. If there is good blood flow in an individual’s body the stored muscle fuel can be used more efficiently.

Body temperature is also a key part of dynamic stretching because warm muscles are more flexible. A test on rabbits have shown that their legs can be stretched further before breaking if the leg had been electronically warmed prior. Depending on which sport an individual is stretching for their dynamic stretches can vary. For runners it is important to focus on stretches such as squats or lunges.

For other sports that require constant movement, such as soccer, should practice stretches such as spiderman. Spiderman is an exercise that requires individual’s to get on all fours and crawl across the ground as if they were scaling a wall. These stretches should take about 10 minutes with a 5 minute recovery directly after.

Originally posted 2010-02-18 08:54:14. Republished by Old Post Promoter