The Power of Stretching!

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Table of Contents

• Men’s Must Read Article

• Parker’s Breakdown: Stretching 🙆‍♂️

• Fitness trivia ❓

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🚨Men’s Must Read Article🚨

The importance of stretching

Do not underestimate the power of stretching!

I did for years and now it has only lead to injuries and pain for me and now I am playing the catch up game.

In this article by health.harvard.edu, they dive into the importance of stretching and why and how you should do it. Here are the main points: 👇👇

• Stretching maintains muscle flexibility and joint mobility.

• Target major muscle groups like calves, hamstrings, quads daily.

• Flexibility requires weeks/months of regular stretching.

• Warm up first, then hold stretches 30 seconds without bouncing.

Parker’s Breakdown: Stretching 🙆‍♂️

I’ll be honest, for years, I thought stretching was a waste of time and I barely did it before my workouts for not even 5 minutes and that was it.

Now, as I get older, I regret it so much. I’m tight everywhere and the worst part is that it has led to joint pain due to muscle tightness and this pain has prevented me from completing workouts before.

I have had knee pain for years now and I started to go to physical therapy. I thought it was just an accumulation of years of heavy lifting but I was wrong. It was an accumulation of half ass stretching!

It wasn’t until my physical therapist put me on an extensive stretching and warm up routine that I started to see results in my knee pain!

Here is why stretching is so important: 👇👇👇

• Maintains muscle flexibility - Stretching keeps muscles long and lean so they can move joints through full range of motion.

• Supports joint health - Flexible muscles support joints and allow them to move freely without restriction or pain.

• Prevents injury - Flexible muscles are less likely to tear or strain when exercised strenuously.

• Aids recovery - Stretching helps repair muscle damage from overuse.

• Improves posture - Stretching muscles that become short and tight from sitting improves posture.

• Enhances performance - Flexibility allows greater freedom and ease of movement for physical activities

So how can you implement stretching in your life/routine?

Static stretching has been shown to hinder strength performance during weight training. But dynamic stretching has shown to increase blood flow and increase strength performance and injury prevention for a weight training session.

So here is my recommendation and what I do myself. Before every weight training or cardio session, I static stretch all the muscles I’m not using. So for example if it is back and biceps day, I will static stretch my chest, shoulders, triceps, and legs. I will then move into dynamic stretching for the muscles I will be using that session. So if we are sticking with the example, I would do dynamic stretches for my back and biceps.

Then, after the workout, I immediately go static stretch the muscle group I just worked. I will then go home and eat something and before I shower I do a full body static stretch routine and also roll out my back and legs with a foam roller.

Doing this has changed my day to day life because it has reduced my joint pain, relieved overall tightness, and has prevented so many injuries. I can’t recommend stretching enough and I hope this helps!

Fitness trivia ❓

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