Valentin Bosioc
Everybody know that stretching should be a part of every individual!
Stretching is an extremely important practice to add to your daily routine to be on your way to better health. Even if you are not planning on exercising vigorously, it is still important to stretch in order to receive multiple benefits for your body and your mind.
Incorporating stretching into your daily workouts is a given but stretching is very important for flexibility, range of motion and injury prevention. It relaxes your muscles and increases blood flow and nutrients to your cartilage and muscles.
Stretching feels ah-mazing for a reason: The right stretches have the power to remake your workout, your health, and your life. Think we’re exaggerating? Read on to learn the super-awesome benefits of stretching.
1. Stretching Primes Your Muscles for Exercise
Why:
- If the first mile of every run feels like straight-up torture, you need to start warming up with dynamic stretches like leg swings, high knees, and bodyweight squats and lunges. A dynamic warm-up increases blood flow, moves the joint fluidly, and mimics the movements that will be completed during the workout.
2. Stretching Improves Your Posture
Why:
- Improving your posture comes down to more than willing yourself to sit up straight. Tight muscles are synonymous with weak muscles, which lead to postural compensations.
3. Stretching Eases Back Pain
Why:
- Believe it or not, back pain may come from tight hamstrings. That’s because tight hammies increase the stress on the muscles surrounding your spine and in your lower back.
READ RELATED: You only need 7 Minutes to Remove Back Pain With 7 Stretching Exercises
4. Stretching Improves Your Exercise Form
Why:
- Tight muscles don’t do anything good for your exercise form. After all, when your muscles start compensating for each other, proper bio-mechanics go out the window. By correcting muscular imbalances, static stretching helps you perform any exercise with better form, both improving your performance and preventing injury (more on that next).
5. Stretching Prevents Injury
Why:
- Performing dynamic stretching prior to exercise is important for preventing any of those “something snapped!” injuries that can occur when you work out with cold, tight muscles.
DON’T MISS: The Best Stretching Exercises
