Stretching is for Everyday!

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - My motto is, "Stretching is for Everyday", and I do practice what I preach. Research has indicated that regular stretching may be more effective in preventing injuries than occasional stretching and a review of 7 out of 9 studies indicates that regular stretching improves sports performance. My motto will continue to be "Stretching is for Everyday" (almost every day, whether we have exercised or not!) and I hope yours will be too (after reading today's tip!)!

Every day we move, bend, sit, walk (crane our necks?) and everyday we repeat the same movements during our day, which can tighten our muscles to cause what we call repetitive stress syndrome. We may even sleep in the wrong position during the night forcing our muscles to work harder to support our spine and hence, wake up feeling tight and stiff.

So, for those of us who stretch occasionally, rarely or never (I hope it's not never!), here is my tip about stretching that I send out at least once a year.

Why is stretching so important?

Stretching increases our flexibility. Flexibility is a component of fitness. When we increase our flexibility, we help to increase our overall level of fitness AND we may possibly increase other aspects of fitness such as muscular strength and endurance (ever have a stiff joint and feel fit?).
Stretching can ease Repetitive Stress Syndrome. This is also called overuse syndrome. Do we sit at a computer? Ever hear of carpal tunnel syndrome, or have we developed poor posture? Stretching the muscles and tendons that become tight from repetitive movements combined with a strengthening program can prevent or help heal these chronic conditions that all of us are susceptible to.

Stretching slows/stops our nerves from firing. Wonder what causes a muscle spasm? Over-firing of our nerves causes the muscle to over- contract. Stretching sends a signal to our nerves to stop firing. This in turn helps our muscles to relax.
Stretching keeps our joints more limber. Each joint has a different degree of movement. This is called " range of motion". For instance, we can bend our knee backward bringing our heel to our butt, and our hip can bend in multiple directions with varying degrees. When we stretch properly, we can maintain an optimal range of movement (otherwise we get stiff, and our function is altered).

Stretching and increased flexibility can help to prevent injuries. When our joints and muscles are limber and flexible with movement through the full range, we have more balance and coordination. When we retain our flexibility, our tendons retain their elasticity which reduces inflammation and "tendonitis" injuries (who hasn't experienced tendonitis?).

Stretching can help us find muscle imbalances. When I first meet a client I assess their flexibility because I can find the muscle imbalances which we all create in daily life or sport activities. Regular stretching can help us to find and lessen these imbalances which can ultimately lead to injury.
Stretching can be a great stress reliever. We can take a time-out from stress by stretching which is a great way to relax. Easy stretches can be done in a chair at our desk when the tension mounts. Add in a little deep breathing to increase our oxygen supply to the brain and may we find ourselves feeling and thinking better.

Do we need a recap? Stretching more often can help us to relieve muscle tension, prevent stiffness, injury and overuse syndromes. It can contribute to balance and coordination and help us to reduce mental stress. We get all this and it feels good too!

Have we stretched today?

A fitness freaks guide to stretching and staying hydrated

Bruce Swedal
However, there are many myths about both these things that have crept into most people's thinking.

The number one myth about hydration is that you should let your level of thirst signal when you need to drink. This is absolutely untrue. Most athletes only replace about 2/3 of the water they lose when they follow this rule. Instead, drink fluids on a schedule. A general rule of thumb, depending on your weight and weather conditions is to drink 8 ounces of water about 15 minutes before beginning exercise and 8 ounces for each 15 minutes during your workout.

Another hydration myth is that everyone needs eight glasses of water a day. This may not be enough for some people who engage in higher intensity sports. It may be too much for sedentary people. This is because, although it is true that the average person loses 80 ounces of water a day, he or she also gains about 32 ounces of water from food. That means, in order to replace lost fluids a person only needs to drink about 48 ounces of water rather than the 64 ounces contained in eight glasses of water.

A recent study about over hydration has scared people into believing that you can get sick from drinking too much water during exercise. While this may be true in isolated cases, typically among endurance athletes, the average person will not get sick from drinking too much water unless they have an existing heart, liver or kidney problem. If you have one of these conditions, checking with your doctor about the proper amount of liquid to drink during exercise is advisable.



Stretching is another source of myths and misinformation. Contrary to popular belief, stretching will not "warm you up." Warming up is done by starting a low level of activity and working up to your desired intensity. Stretching before exercise also will not prevent injury although research has shown that it will reduce pain and muscle soreness after exercise. Only a proper warm-up routine will help prevent injuries.

Many people also believe that stretching is most beneficial when done before a workout. Actually, gentle stretching after a workout can help reduce cramping and muscular pain. Also, there is the belief that any stretching is better than none. Improper stretching can actually increase the risk of muscular injuries. It's worth taking the time to learn stretches appropriate to the activity you're planning to perform.

Bruce Swedal is an active Colorado Realtor in the Denver Real Estate market. He is a member of the South Metro Denver Realtors Association, National Association of Realtors and Colorado Association of Realtors. He and his family live in Highlands Ranch Colorado. They enjoy traveling and family time. He is listed in the Authority Web Directory.

How Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth

Not only is stretching important for flexibility, it is CRITICAL for massive, rapid muscle growth!

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.

But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Because fascia is so tough, it doesn't allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won't change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.

The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

The solution: stretching.

Stretching is one of the most under-utilized techniques for improving athletic performance, preventing sports injury and properly rehabilitating sprain and strain injury. Don't make the mistake of thinking that something as simple as stretching won't be effective.

Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space.

By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.

The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.

When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it.

Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren't pumped, just stretch normally.

One set of hard stretching after each set you do for a muscle group, besides the obvious benefits of increased flexibility, can have an incredible effect on the size of your muscles and their further ability to grow.

This informative article was written by Nick Nilsson, president of Better U, Inc.

Happy stretching!

Fitness expert Anupa stresses the need to bring in a lot of variety to our workout schedules. Unless a conscious effort is made from your side you would end up losing most of the vital muscles.

This is a fact that most of us would not want to accept - 2 out of 10 people would love to go for a regular aerobic workout, pump iron in the gym, strap our running shoes and give it a go or do some kind of fitness activity regularly. The rest of the people are still wondering what to do?

Well, the reality is that the body requires movement for sure and more so the body likes a lot of variety. So, even if we have set into a routine and are perfect disciplinarians our body would still benefit from change and variety.

• Rote and repetitive movements can get too monotonous and boring, adherence to them becomes difficult.
• When there is no variety in the form of exercise, the chances of calories getting burnt will also become less. Once the mind understands the routine it can tune the body to its pace.
• Sometimes repetition can cause overuse injuries. When the body is forced to do a particular movement repetitively, there is a possibility to wear down some cartilage, sometimes even tear muscles and tendons.

Hence it is necessary to bring in a lot of variety in to our workout schedules. Again, let us try to cater to the class, or the other 80%, who feel the necessity to move but are still pondering over the choice.

• Try to accumulate 30 minutes of activity in the course of the day. This can be split into 3 ten-minute intervals or 2 fifteen-minute intervals or one full chunk of 30 minutes. The idea is to get some movement that will lower your cholesterol levels, boost up the HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol and lower the LDL (low density lipoprotein) that clogs arteries.
• Make sure you enjoy the moderate activity that you are doing. A do-or-die attitude towards exercise may diminish the positive benefits of exercise.

We will primarily focus on developing two aspects of fitness - strength or endurance and flexibility.

A weight-training programme directly results in developing strength. Within a couple of weeks of starting a weight-training programme you can see a visible gain in muscle strength and endurance. Your daily tasks of lifting grocery bags, opening lids and moving heavy objects would become easier. Let's however look at the major advantages:

1. Fat burning: A consistent weight training routine will see a cumulative effect of an enhanced fat burning capacity. Within 3 months, the body's muscle to fat ratio improves and you would start burning more calories
2. Low risk of osteoporosis: A weight-training programme prevents calcium depletion especially for women post menopause.
3. Easier movement: The general activity level of people who indulge in this training is very high and they find themselves be able to do more things in the available time.
4. Prevents premature aging: Loss of strength is the single most important reason for age-related functional loss, reducing capacity, curtailed activities and even shrinking of the skeleton. If you don't put a muscle to use, you would lose it i.e., the muscle loses its function and this loss occurs at an accelerated rate after 40 years.

Unless a conscious effort is made from our side we would end up losing most of the vital muscles. Especially Indians have a lot of myths built around body-building and all the more women. Ideally as you age a weight training routine will ease the process and you will enjoy it.
Let us now look at the flexibility aspects through stretching. Most of the times stretching exercise looks and feels very painful. The reason being people believe that by over pushing a muscle or a joint a stretch is executed and flexibility maximised. Ideally think of your pet cat or dog at home or any other animal you can remember. They stretch gracefully and sometimes we would even envy them. The stretch executed by them is effortless and the purpose is accomplished. If we know that our body keeps reckoning us to stretch when we maintain monotony the whole day. If we can heed this and stretch accordingly, flexibility is gained. We should not mistake this with clicking of knuckles or other joints.
The accrued benefits of stretching frequently as a part of your routine will find your muscles having lesser tension, less stiffness, better elasticity of the muscles and tendons and reduced risk of injuries.

When executing a stretch keep the following points in mind:

1. Be gentle - a muscle should slowly experience the stretch, only then it lengthens the right way and you can enjoy it.
2. Be patient - Do not be in a hurry to execute the stretch. It takes roughly 10 seconds for the muscle to stop contracting, the next 20 seconds in preparing to stretch and only the following 10 seconds to actually lengthen. Give yourself this time and enjoy the stretch.
3. Be consistent - Do not stretch once in a week or occasionally when you feel like exercising. Stretch regularly like a cat.
4. Warm up - Before executing any stretch ensure your body is warmed up, do not stretch when you are rigid and cold.

So, let's parallelly work on our strength and flexibility.

The author is martial arts practitioner and a personal fitness coach.

Importance of stretching your muscles

Posted By Cotnam, Donna
As much as I promote physical activity, working out on a regular basis and living an active lifestyle, I will be the first to admit that I do not work out every day.

The one thing however, that I do every day is stretch.

I personally feel that stretching is the most important thing you can do for your body.

Stretching enhances your flexibility and co-ordination, as well it improves the muscles 'response time' or reaction.

Muscles and connective tissues shorten over time and that results in less flexibility.

If your muscles have gone some time without being used, they tend to become weaker and rather stiff.

The risk of injury is therefore increased when you call on your muscles to perform suddenly.

Regular stretching exercises to lengthen and strengthen your muscles can reduce your risk of injury.

A warmup prior to any workout has always been recommended.

This should extend to any strenuous physical activity that you are about to engage in (shovelling, gardening, chopping wood).

A warmup is usually comprised of some 'loco-motor' movements such as a few minutes on some stationary cardio equipment, walking or a light jog, combined with stretching exercises for the major muscles. Keep in mind of course that you want to try and avoid too much intense stretching before a muscle is warmed up.

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Prior to your activity, any stretching you perform should be what we refer to as 'dynamic' or active.

This means that the stretch is not held for any length of time.

A common mistake that is made during stretching exercises is to bounce as you stretch.

Bouncing is a rather 'sudden' shock to the muscle and again the result will be injury.

Your muscle will be far better off with a slow and gradual 'push'.

As your flexibility improves your body becomes accustom to the stretches.

Holding a stretch at its extended limit, while at the same time relaxing the muscle will improve your flexibility.

These 'static' stretches are best done after a very physical workout when the muscles are warm.

When you stretch, it is not uncommon to feel a 'pulling' sensation. If this feeling is accompanied with pain, then you need to stop or reduce the intensity at which you are stretching.

Always stretch within your comfort zone and try not to hold your muscles tight and intense. Try to let your muscles relax.

Regular stretching helps to reduce stress and high blood pressure and ensures that the body's 'systems' function better.

Like exercise, regular stretching increases blood flow feeding more oxygen to the muscle and organs thus enabling better performance.

Stretching before, during and after intense physical activity will help to keep you injury-free.

Make sure that your stretching program covers all the major muscle groups. Happy Stretching!!

If you have any fitness related questions please send them along to The Daily Observer or e-mail fitmom@hotmail.com