You already know that stretching is essential. It improves flexibility and mobility (one of many key parts of health) and reduces the danger of damage. And for those who don’t stretch, the muscular tissues can shorten and turn into tight, which might restrict your vary of movement and put you in danger for joint ache or a pulled muscle.
However stretching is just useful if it’s accomplished accurately. There are a number of widespread stretching errors that may result in the precise reverse of what you’re searching for, resembling damage and inflexibility. Listed below are eight pitfalls to keep away from so you may enhance your flexibility and your exercises.
1. You’re Doing the Flawed Kind of Stretching
There are two essential kinds of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretching is what you most likely keep in mind from fitness center class: steadily stretching a muscle and holding a pose for about 30 seconds. Whereas it is a nice strategy to settle down from a exercise or improve normal flexibility, analysis means that static stretching earlier than a energy exercise may very well trigger a lower in efficiency.
“Throughout a warm-up, you need to do dynamic stretching, which boosts muscle activation and prepares muscular tissues to be highly effective via a full vary of movement,” says Trevor Thieme, CSCS. Dynamic stretches embrace lunges, trunk rotations, leg swings, and leaping rope.
For the post-exercise “cool-down” interval, you may concentrate on static stretching to loosen up the muscular tissues and launch stress. “Each kinds of stretching may also help improve mobility,” Thieme says. “However one excites muscular tissues whereas the opposite calms them down.”
2. You’re Bouncing Whereas Stretching
Utilizing momentum from bouncing to drive a muscle to stretch previous its regular vary (a.okay.a. ballistic stretching) could really feel prefer it’s serving to you improve your vary of movement. However as a substitute of loosening the muscle, such a speedy stretching motion can truly trigger the muscular tissues to tighten — a contraction often known as the myotatic reflex or “stretch reflex.” This may result in accidents like muscle or tendon tears, Thieme says.
3. You’re Stretching Injured Muscle tissue
Stretching injured muscular tissues is “an enormous no-no,” Thieme warns. Muscle strains sometimes occur when a muscle is stretched past its restrict, so stretching it additional can irritate the damage. As a substitute, use the POLICE protocol (safety, optimum loading, ice, compression, and elevation) to assist the muscle heal.
4. You’re Overstretching
Whereas some discomfort is to be anticipated, it is best to by no means be in ache whereas stretching. “Overstretching may end up in muscle strains or extreme neural stress [stretching of the nerves],” says Lindsay Sudell, MOT, OTR/L, CFSS-3, CPT of Merely Stretch LA.
Overstretching also can result in hypermobility, “which is when a joint is just too unfastened and thus unstable,” Thieme says. Know your limits whenever you’re stretching, and don’t drive your self to transcend them.
5. You’re Not Stretching Persistently
It’s going to take quite a lot of sporadic stretching periods to realize the pliability of a gymnast. Ideally, your stretching periods must be reasonable and frequent quite than intense and occasional.
“So as to obtain bodily, everlasting change, stretching should be constant for six to eight weeks,” says Sudell.
6. You’re Dashing Via Your Stretches
“Individuals typically don’t stretch for the suitable length of time,” explains Sudell. She recommends aiming for 30 seconds or much less for pre-exercise stretches. For post-workout static stretching, goal to carry every stretch for at the very least 60 seconds.
7. You’re Not Doing Sport-Particular Stretches
Sport-specific stretches “will be something focused towards actions {that a} specific athlete wants,” Sudell says. For instance, she says, golfers could concentrate on stretches that enhance their spinal rotation and hip mobility, to allow them to hit the ball with maximal energy. Sprinters can heat up with dynamic stretches that simulate operating and explosive actions, like strolling lunges, butt kicks, and excessive knees.
Analysis additionally exhibits that static stretches are higher fitted to athletes who want flexibility (like gymnasts or dancers), whereas dynamic stretches are particularly useful for individuals who have to run or bounce (like basketball gamers or runners).
8. You’re Ignoring Your Respiration
Deep, diaphragmatic respiratory “may also help loosen up tense muscular tissues, and when paired with stretching, can enable for a fair deeper stretch with out growing the danger of damage,” Thieme says.
As well as, respiratory enhances the therapeutic impact of stretching, Sudell says. Analysis exhibits that diaphragmatic respiratory can assist the physique get well after an intense exercise. The correct strategy to breathe throughout a stretch is to slowly inhale via the nostril, maintain for a second, then launch the breath via both the mouth or nostril, conserving the diaphragm and stomach delicate and relaxed.
