Guidelines You Don’t Want to Skip DUring Stretching

No matter what sport you engage in, you want to improve your athletic performance and decrease your risk of injury. So check out the following list for some basic flexibility training guidelines:

• Warm up. Make sure you warm up before you start to exercise. You need just about 10 to 15 minutes of dynamic stretching that mimics what you’ll later be doing full speed.
• Drink fluids. Your muscles and joints need fluid to stay flexible and lubricated. So here are the guidelines:

1. If you exercise for less than an hour, water is more than adequate.
2. However, if you exercise more than an hour, a sports drink improves endurance, reaction time, and concentration because carbohydrates are being used by both the brain and muscle during prolonged exercise.

• Focus on a particular area. Each sport has specific requirements: A runner needs a flexible lower body; racquet sports require flexibility in the upper body; and in contact sports, you need a strong flexible core. To enhance performance and help prevent injury, focus on the area you use the most.
• Don’t forget the rest of your body. If you’re serious about improving your game through stretching, you’ll have to engage in a flexibility program that stretches your entire body two or three days a week. Like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
• Cool down. Never forget to cool down after a workout because it allows the blood and oxygen to return to your heart and muscles instead of “pooling” or staying in your extremities. After your breathing returns to normal and your heart rate is under 100 beats per minute, your body has cooled down sufficiently.