It’s easy to dismiss stretching from your regular exercise routine. We’re all guilty of having done it at some point. But, the truth is stretching is just as important for your body as exercising is.

And, let’s face it. The discipline that comes from stretching before and after exercise is hard to implement. If you start looking forward to it and see a difference in your agility, pain management, and more, you’ll see why you should stretch.

To learn more about the importance of stretching, keep reading.

Why You Should Stretch

We’ve all been told that stretching is important, but really, what are the benefits of stretching?

Stretching health benefits include some of the following.

• Warms you up for your workout
• Allows for safe exercise
• Promotes flexibility
• Maximize mobility
• Reduce injury risk
• Stress release
• Improve performance in other sports
• Prevents chronic pain

These are only some of the many benefits of stretching before and after exercise. Before exercising, stretching helps eliminate the risk of major injury happening. Because you stretch the muscles you will be working out; you are preparing them to be utilized.

Stretching also uses your muscles in ways they would not normally be used. This is a major reason why stretching and exercising go hand in hand.

Stretching your muscles regularly up keeps your muscles as being strong. Thus, exerting your muscles afterwards is easier as less force is used to gather the strength to exercise.

Maintaining a stretching routine promotes flexibility, mobility, and agility. An increase in your range of motion translates to being able to perform harder exercises. Stretching takes time and dedication, so don’t expect to be able to do the splits right away. You’ll have to make up for months or years’ worth of lost time stretching, but in a few weeks or months, you’ll see progress in your flexibility.

Stretching after exercise helps ease some of the soreness from working out. Your muscles were just tightened and contracted several times, so stretching these muscles out helps reduce the risk of injury and tight muscles the next day.

Stretching Routines

As mentioned, why you should stretch daily is important for seeing all of the benefits stretching has to offer. It’s best to warm up for a few minutes before diving into a deep stretching routine. This can be easily done by going for a quick walk, jumping jacks, jumping-roping, or other similar activities.

Once your body is feeling warm, let the stretching commence. You can focus on hip flexors, your neck, back, hamstrings, quads, calves, or any other area that is stressed or will be worked out.

Aim to dedicate at least five to ten minutes a day to stretching. Even on the days you do not work out, stretching can help relieve tension and stress while building your flexibility.

To get the most effective results from stretching, hold each stretch for at least thirty seconds. For personalized classes and training, Bellinghamevo.com has classes and trainers to help assist you further in your personalized exercise journey.

More Fitness Tips

Don’t sleep on why you should stretch. The results will amaze you as your body and mind become more aligned.

For additional tips on all things fitness, check out the ‘Health and Fitness’ blog page on our site.