The Joy of Stretching

Hello :)

Today I'm here to write a bit about one of my favourite kind of sport like activities, which is called stretching. Unlike what most people think, stretching can be a good workout if you really try to push yourself past your limits and challenge yourself to do things you didn't think you could do and I definitely can say that my muscles are a lot more sore after a good session of stretching, compared to doing cardio or yoga/pilates.

Stretching also has a lot of benefits, it obviously improves a persons flexibility, also the range of motions, blood circulation and posture. In addition to all that, I feel like it's very easy to see and track improvement, since every time that I stretch, I can feel myself getting better at it. The hardest part, is just rolling my mat out and starting my routine, that's already half the victory, since you're doing something for yourself and your health.

The two main types of stretches are dynamic and static stretches, both can be very benefitial. Dynamic stretches, as most can probably tell, involve using the full range of motion of joints and muscles. It's generally used as a good warm up to get the body ready for a different type of workout or static stretching. It's very important to do some dynamic stretches before heading on with the stertching routine, since it makes all the joints and muscles open up and become more loose, which helps hold the stretches deeper and longer later. I mainly like to do some leg swings before i stretch my legs. i either lay on my back and lift one of my legs (it has to be straight and flexed) as close to my head as possible, without holding it there for very long and do so until my legs feel warm enough to go on. I also do the similar thing standing up, just by swinging my leg back and forth. Obviously I do it on both legs as well.

Dynamic stretches are quite often used in regular sports classes and although they aren't very thoroughly explained, most people do them without thinking about it, before their workout.

Static stretches are the ones that really improve your flexibility. The key to static stretches is to try to relax while doing them. It's a lot easier said than done, but if you somehow manage to relax, then you can really feel the muscles and joints becoming more flexible and opening up to deeper stretches than they have before. It's important to notice when the body starts to tense up again, since it happens rather easily and it should be avoided. I enjoy static stretches, since these ones show how much I've improved, I do roughly about the same routine every time I stretch and I can feel and see how every time I go through the same series of motions, that it gets easier and more fluent.

Another thing I'd like to briefly talk about is the speed of becoming flexible. It has been proven that two people who might be equally flexible, might take a different amount of time of stertching to reach that flexibility. That explains why some people can start stretching and reach their splits within a month and others may need more time, although they started at the same point and always did the same amount of stretching. A lot of people call it being naturally flexible, but the correct term is pliability.

So I recommend everyone do a bit of stertching every now and then, it's fun and relaxing as well as healthy for you. 

Kaiela :)