{"id":496,"date":"2020-09-03T18:53:39","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T18:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fancysdayspa.blog\/?p=496"},"modified":"2020-09-03T18:53:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T18:53:39","slug":"when-you-stretch-is-just-as-important-as-how-you-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/when-you-stretch-is-just-as-important-as-how-you-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"When you stretch is just as important as how you stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Many fitness\u00a0instructors\u00a0still\u00a0teach\u00a0the importance of\u00a0stretching<\/a>\u00a0extensively before and after any sort\u00a0of exercise,\u00a0and if you\u2019re\u00a0a member of a\u00a0gym, you\u2019ll undoubtedly\u00a0see this\u00a0being done\u00a0often.\u00a0But what if I told you that many of us have been stretching all wrong?\u00a0While it\u2019s hard to change old habits, this change is imperative if you\u00a0want to get the most out of your workouts, and prevent injuries along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us have always been told that before working out you should stretch and warm up right? But times change and research shows us just how wrong we are sometimes. While the warm up part is entirely true, let\u2019s look at a scenario; you put a rubber band in the freezer and leave it for a day. The next morning you go and pull the rubber band out of the freezer and immediately stretch the rubber band. How far do you think the rubber band will stretch? Because it\u2019s cold, not very far before it just snaps, right? So now imagine that your muscles are that rubber band. If you perform static stretching (a technique in which a significant stretched position is slowly reached, then held for some time) while your muscles are \u201ccold\u201d, they\u2019re not going to stretch much, and you run the risk of pulling or straining a muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, static stretching before a workout reduces your strength and power output for up to an hour! While static stretching is out of the question before a workout, there is a way to warm your muscles up and stretch them without putting them in danger. Dynamic flexibility exercises are exercises where movement starts slow, and gradually builds to the full range of motion and speed. Have you ever seen athletes warming up by mimicking the movements they are about to make in their match? Those movements would be considered dynamic flexibility exercises. They start small and gradually increase range of motion, and therefore the muscle stretch, while warming up the muscles at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While static stretching before physical activity is not suggested, it can be helpful in aiding recovery after physical activity. It is important to note that anytime you\u2019re stretching, if something doesn\u2019t feel right, don\u2019t force your body into it. While that may be common sense for many, we live in a time where many still abide by the mantra \u201cno pain, no gain\u201d and that just isn\u2019t always the case, especially when it comes to stretching..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to stretch your muscles before a workout, focus on stretches that include movement as opposed to stretches that are static, and save the static stretches for post workout to help your muscles recover. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many fitness instructors still teach the importance of stretching extensively before and after any sort of exercise, and if you\u2019re a member of a gym, you\u2019ll undoubtedly see this being done often. But what if I told you that many of us have been stretching all wrong? While it\u2019s hard to change old habits, this change is imperative if you want to get the most out of your workouts, and prevent injuries along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[79,123],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stretching-exercise","tag-stretching","tag-stretching-is-important"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/stretch.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasmassageacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}