You already know that stretching is necessary. It improves flexibility and mobility (one of many key parts of health) and reduces the danger of harm. And in case you don’t stretch, the muscular tissues can shorten and turn out to be tight, which may restrict your vary of movement and put you in danger for joint ache or a pulled muscle.
However stretching is barely useful if it’s accomplished accurately. There are a couple of widespread stretching errors that may result in the precise reverse of what you’re on the lookout for, similar to harm and inflexibility. Listed below are eight pitfalls to keep away from so you possibly can enhance your flexibility and your exercises.
1. You’re Doing the Mistaken Kind of Stretching
There are two essential kinds of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretching is what you most likely bear in mind from health club class: step by step stretching a muscle and holding a pose for about 30 seconds. Whereas it is a nice strategy to quiet down from a exercise or enhance basic flexibility, analysis means that static stretching earlier than a power exercise may very well trigger a lower in efficiency.
“Throughout a warm-up, you wish to do dynamic stretching, which boosts 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 possibly can concentrate on static stretching to calm down the muscular tissues and launch rigidity. “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 enhance your vary of movement. However as an alternative of loosening the muscle, one of these fast stretching motion can really 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 “a giant no-no,” Thieme warns. Muscle strains sometimes occur when a muscle is stretched past its restrict, so stretching it additional can irritate the harm. 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 can lead to muscle strains or extreme neural rigidity [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 drive your self to transcend them.
5. You’re Not Stretching Persistently
It’s going to take various sporadic stretching classes to attain the flexibleness of a gymnast. Ideally, your stretching classes must be average and frequent quite than intense and occasional.
“To be able 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, purpose to carry every stretch for at the very least 60 seconds.
7. You’re Not Doing Sport-Particular Stretches
Sport-specific stretches “may be something focused towards actions {that a} explicit 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 working and explosive actions, like strolling lunges, butt kicks, and excessive knees.
Analysis additionally reveals that static stretches are higher suited 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 “may also help calm down tense muscular tissues, and when paired with stretching, can permit for a fair deeper stretch with out growing the danger of harm,” 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 strategy 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, maintaining the diaphragm and stomach comfortable and relaxed.
