Stretching: Essential before and after exercise

Stretching is a very important part of the exercise routine.  It is actually just as important as cardio vascular exercise and resistance or weight training exercise.  Cardiovascular training improves heart performance and overall endurance capabilities. Resistance training improves muscle mass and strength. Stretching, for its part, improves flexibility and mobility.  Yet, many people perceive stretching as totally unnecessary for them.  Most of them actually think that because they can easily do it, they can also do away with it.  This is the wrong way of looking at stretching.  The fact that it is easy to do has nothing to do with its effectiveness.  That adage is apt for weight training but it is not for stretching.

Regular and proper stretching before and after exercise provides many benefits.  It helps corrects and improves bad posture.  It greatly reduces the probability of suffering injuries during the exercise and it can even help in the recovery process after the exercise.  Additionally, stretching relaxes the body and helps relieve stress and tension in the muscles, tendons, and joints.  It is even known to help boost the self esteem and confidence of many practitioners.

Anyone and everyone, regardless of the level of fitness, age, or sex, can highly benefit from stretching.  It can be done as an entirely separate fitness program or as an additional warm up before exercise and a cool down regimen after exercise.  By regularly including it into the regular exercise routine, it will eventually become second nature and its many positive benefits will start to show its effects. 

Stretching may be done to target one specific muscle or a particular group of muscles.  Whichever method is used however, the results will still normally have a positive effect on the entire body, not just the actual muscles being targeted.  Furthermore, proper and regular stretching will not only affect the physical body, it will also positively affect the mind as well.

Stretching brings about flexibility in the body and this in turn provides many benefits.  Having good flexibility allows the body to do regular chores much easier and without too much burden.  It makes many activities much more fun to do rather than painful to endure.  Playing sports also becomes much more enjoyable and exciting.  When done before exercise, stretching makes the body more prepared to undergo the challenges of the exercise without having to go through unnecessary risk of injury.  After exercise, stretching helps the muscles calm down slowly and allows them to relax.

Stretching is most effective when it is held for at least 30 seconds.  Holding a stretch for less then 30 seconds usually does not have the sought after effect. Holding it for longer than 30 seconds is usually recommended, provided of course that there is no pain felt when holding the stretch for this much time.  The important thing to remember is that the stretch must be held for a long enough period to give the stretched muscles enough time to relax, elongate, and lengthen.  Be conscious about the muscle you are stretching to make sure that you are stretching it properly.