The Importance Of Stretching

February 21, 2019

You may have noticed that if you sit on a chair for a long time and then try to stand up and move, you become unable to extend your legs fully and it causes you a lot of pain.  This causes difficulties in walking too. This is because the muscles aren’t stretched enough. If stretching exercises are done regularly as necessary, then the muscle will be strong and flexible, and both of these qualities are essential for healthy muscles. 

Otherwise, the muscles will become short and tight, which will reduce the range of motion in the joints and makes your muscles weak and useless. So when you do a stressful activity using these tight muscles, it will cause you pain and muscle damage because they are not used to being stretched and not flexible enough. This can cause you a lot of injuries.

On the other hand, if your muscles are used to being stretched because of daily stretching exercises, some strenuous activities will not bother you at all. And that is the importance of stretching in your day-to-day life.

How To Do The Stretching?

Now that you know the importance of stretching, you have how to do it correctly. You can’t stretch every muscle of your body every single day. There are some specific regions that need your attention regularly, like the lower extremities of the body such as hamstrings, calves and the hip flexors. 

But there are some other parts of the body like the neck and the back that need stretching too. You can do these days or as regularly as you can with the time available for you.

You always need advice on your stretching exercises because they can cause varied consequences if they are done wrong.  You can get the best physiotherapy service from a physio clinic in Burnaby. 

You can have a stretching program designed just for you by the physiotherapists, to fit your body and requirements. If you have special conditions like arthritis, that should be informed to the physiotherapist.

Doing stretching exercises regularly is very important. It takes dedication and hard work to earn a flexible, healthy body. You have to work on it for weeks and weeks to get your muscles trained for bending and stretching, especially if you are new to stretching. You have carefully followed the instructions given by your physiotherapist Burnaby.

 

Do It Properly

It’s vital to know the importance of stretching, as well as the importance of executing these exercises properly. It’s the common view that stretching is a part of the warm-up exercises. But the experts beg to differ. 

Their view is that the muscles have to be warmed up first, before doing the stretching exercises. If not, injuries can occur because the fibers aren’t ready to stretch yet. Some light exercises like quick walking for about 10 minutes are all you need as a warm-up. Then your muscles will be all ready for the stretching exercises.

When you are doing stretching exercises, you have to keep on stretching the specific muscles for about half a minute. It is normal to feel tension but it shouldn’t be painful. If there is any pain, it suggests that there can be some injury. Then you have to stop the exercises and visit your Burnaby physiotherapy clinic to get advice about it from your physiotherapist.

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