You already know that stretching is essential. It improves flexibility and mobility (one of many key elements of health) and reduces the danger of damage. And in case you don’t stretch, the muscular tissues can shorten and change into tight, which might restrict your vary of movement and put you in danger for joint ache or a pulled muscle.
However stretching is simply useful if it’s accomplished accurately. There are a number of frequent stretching errors that may result in the precise reverse of what you’re searching for, corresponding to damage and inflexibility. Listed below are eight pitfalls to keep away from so you’ll be able to enhance your flexibility and your exercises.
1. You’re Doing the Flawed Kind of Stretching
There are two fundamental sorts of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretching is what you in all probability keep in mind from fitness center class: regularly stretching a muscle and holding a pose for about 30 seconds. Whereas this can be a nice option to settle down from a exercise or improve common flexibility, analysis means that static stretching earlier than a energy exercise may very well trigger a lower in efficiency.
“Throughout a warm-up, you wish to do dynamic stretching, which reinforces muscle activation and prepares muscular tissues to be highly effective by 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’ll be able to give attention to static stretching to calm down the muscular tissues and launch pressure. “Each sorts of stretching might 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 pressure a muscle to stretch previous its regular vary (a.ok.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, this kind of speedy stretching motion can truly trigger the muscular tissues to tighten — a contraction generally known as the myotatic reflex or “stretch reflex.” This could result in accidents like muscle or tendon tears, Thieme says.
3. You’re Stretching Injured Muscular tissues
Stretching injured muscular tissues is “a giant no-no,” Thieme warns. Muscle strains sometimes occur when a muscle is stretched past its restrict, so stretching it additional can worsen 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, you need to by no means be in ache whereas stretching. “Overstretching may end up in muscle strains or extreme neural pressure [stretching of the nerves],” says Lindsay Sudell, MOT, OTR/L, CFSS-3, CPT of Merely Stretch LA.
Overstretching may result in hypermobility, “which is when a joint is simply too free and thus unstable,” Thieme says. Know your limits once you’re stretching, and don’t pressure your self to transcend them.
5. You’re Not Stretching Persistently
It’s going to take various sporadic stretching periods to realize the pliability of a gymnast. Ideally, your stretching periods needs to be average and frequent somewhat than intense and occasional.
“To be able to obtain bodily, everlasting change, stretching have to be constant for six to eight weeks,” says Sudell.
6. You’re Rushing By way of Your Stretches
“Individuals typically don’t stretch for the suitable period of time,” explains Sudell. She recommends aiming for 30 seconds or much less for pre-exercise stretches. For post-workout static stretching, purpose to carry every stretch for at the least 60 seconds.
7. You’re Not Doing Sport-Particular Stretches
Sport-specific stretches “might be something focused towards actions {that a} explicit athlete wants,” Sudell says. For instance, she says, golfers could give attention to 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 reveals that static stretches are higher fitted to athletes who want flexibility (like gymnasts or dancers), whereas dynamic stretches are particularly useful for individuals who must run or bounce (like basketball gamers or runners).
8. You’re Ignoring Your Respiration
Deep, diaphragmatic respiration “might help calm down tense muscular tissues, and when paired with stretching, can permit for a good deeper stretch with out growing the danger of damage,” Thieme says.
As well as, respiration enhances the therapeutic impact of stretching, Sudell says. Analysis reveals that diaphragmatic respiration can assist the physique recuperate after an intense exercise. The correct option to breathe throughout a stretch is to slowly inhale by the nostril, maintain for a second, then launch the breath by both the mouth or nostril, preserving the diaphragm and stomach tender and relaxed.