Hi Gang! Here’s part 2 of the Warm-Up and Stretching series I’m writing about. Keeping it short and simple so that I don’t go into too much boring detail and keeping it somewhat interesting for you.

So, we learned in the previous blog, Warm Up Before Stretching, to warm up first. Now after our body temperature has been raised and our muscles, tendons and ligaments are warm it’s time to stretch.

Stretching and flexibility go hand in hand. And as the word basically describes itself, flexibility is the degree of movement that a joint can make. I’m envious of those people who are born with a large amount of flexibility but for the rest of us, we all tend to have a limited amount of flexibility which may even decrease over time. The joints themselves also determine the amount of flexibility we have, but we can improve things by stretching our muscles, tendons and ligaments. Basically there are two types of stretching, Static and Ballistic. For now, just focus on the Static stretching. Move your arm, leg or whatever as far as comfortably possible, and hold it in that stretched position for about 15 to 30 seconds. I have to emphasize here, don’t bounce your way to this point.  That could cause injury which is the sole thing your trying to prevent.  Ballistic stretching can be OK, but just not right now.

Do this for all parts of the body and you’ll put yourself on the road to improved performance in sports and daily activities. Keep this routine up and you may just be able to bend over and tie those shoelaces once again.  If not, then maybe we need to talk about that mid section and getting rid of that.

I hope you found this article helpful and I would really appreciate your help in getting the word out.  Click on the “Share It” button below and you’ll have possible helped someone from getting injured!  Have a SUPER day!

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Okay, I have to apologize here.  I’ve blogged about this and that and forgot to add in the great stuff about what “I’m about”…which is fitness, nutrition and health!  So here I just want to take a few minutes and talk about the all important “warm up” before stretching.

A lot of people think stretching is overrated, but I don’t.  I think it’s a necessary part of exercise or sports.  But I also have come to believe that warming up before the stretch is very important.  These two things may seem like the same thing to some, but actually are two different things.  Warm-ups do what they say.  They warm the body up, that’s to say they increase the bodies temperature.  You body temperature will rise and with that, your muscles, ligaments and tendons will also warm up.  You can just picture that more blood is flowing to these areas, to your muscles.  You become more elastic and less tight which has the added benefit of reducing the chance of muscle pulls or strains.

To do this, …warm-up, …you have to get your muscles moving.  I recently have completed several rounds of Insanity and this is where this technique really hit home with me.  For nearly ten minutes we do three sets of cardio interval work, 3 minutes each.  Slow at first, then moderate, then at a higher speed.  The variety in this warm-up for me includes, running in place, jumps, lunges, knee bend kicks, squat jacks and few others at different times.  The body is moving and the muscles are warming up.

After this you can feel free to do some stretching.  You will have broken a sweat during the warm up but not to the point of fatigue or breathlessness, so ten minutes is plenty of time for the warm up.

I hope that you consider this the next time you go out to exercise or play some kind of a sport and remember to do it “before” you stretch.

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