You already know that stretching is necessary. It improves flexibility and mobility (one of many key elements of health) and reduces the danger of damage. And should you don’t stretch, the muscle tissues can shorten and grow to be 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 performed accurately. There are a couple of frequent stretching errors that may result in the precise reverse of what you’re on the lookout for, equivalent 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 Unsuitable Kind of Stretching
There are two fundamental forms of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretching is what you in all probability bear in mind from gymnasium class: step by step stretching a muscle and holding a pose for about 30 seconds. Whereas this can be a nice technique 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 need to do dynamic stretching, which boosts muscle activation and prepares muscle tissues to be highly effective by way of a full vary of movement,” says Trevor Thieme, CSCS. Dynamic stretches embody lunges, trunk rotations, leg swings, and leaping rope.
For the post-exercise “cool-down” interval, you’ll be able to concentrate on static stretching to chill out the muscle tissues and launch rigidity. “Each forms of stretching may help improve mobility,” Thieme says. “However one excites muscle 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 a substitute of loosening the muscle, any such speedy stretching motion can really trigger the muscle tissues to tighten — a contraction often called the myotatic reflex or “stretch reflex.” This will result in accidents like muscle or tendon tears, Thieme says.
3. You’re Stretching Injured Muscle groups
Stretching injured muscle tissues is “an enormous no-no,” Thieme warns. Muscle strains usually 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, it is best to by no means be in ache whereas stretching. “Overstretching may end up in muscle strains or extreme neural rigidity [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 while 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 classes to realize the flexibleness of a gymnast. Ideally, your stretching classes needs to be reasonable and frequent quite 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 Dashing By means of Your Stretches
“Folks usually 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 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 suited to athletes who want flexibility (like gymnasts or dancers), whereas dynamic stretches are particularly useful for many who must run or soar (like basketball gamers or runners).
8. You’re Ignoring Your Respiratory
Deep, diaphragmatic respiration “may help chill out tense muscle tissues, and when paired with stretching, can permit for a good deeper stretch with out rising the danger of damage,” Thieme says.
As well as, respiration enhances the therapeutic impact of stretching, Sudell says. Analysis exhibits that diaphragmatic respiration can assist the physique get well after an intense exercise. The correct technique to breathe throughout a stretch is to slowly inhale by way of the nostril, maintain for a second, then launch the breath by way of both the mouth or nostril, preserving the diaphragm and stomach delicate and relaxed.
