Stretch To Condition Your Body

What is the first thing that you do in the morning? Open your eyes, yes. How about the second thing? Maybe not all of us may have noticed but it's even not just the second thing that we do, sometimes, we even do it before opening our eyes. We stretch. Why do we stretch? We stretch to condition our body to get up from bed.

Back in school we were taught to always stretch before swimming to avoid muscle cramps. But we never really understood what stretching is and why we need to do it all the time.

Stretching is a form of an exercise which conditions our body specifically the muscles to do heavier activities. It lengthens our muscles and improves its tone, it improves our appearance, it helps us prevent injuries and it improves our fitness and health as well.

Stretching is not limited to those who swim or those who are involved in some sports. It is for everybody. It is for all genders, ages and sizes. Stretching conditions our body to perform heavier activities during the day. It makes our muscles more flexible and it helps in regulating the flow of blood in the body as well as our breathing.

Other than before our major exercises and other sport-related activities, the best time to do stretching is early in the morning before we even start doing anything or before bed time. If we stretch early in the morning, it makes us feel more active and it helps us prevent getting injuries. If we stretch before going to bed, it would relax our muscles from all the tensions we had for the day.

If we are going to do our workout, it is best to do stretching first before we start lifting weights or any equivalent task. This would help us prevent muscle pains after the workout especially for beginners.

Stretching is not as simple as extending your legs or your arms. It should be done slowly and relaxed. Bouncing when we do stretching is not a good idea. It may even cause you muscle pain. When we do stretching we should breathe naturally and slowly while we hold the part of the body that we are stretching. We should only stretch it up to the point that we can. If it is already painful, then we might have gone a bit over the limit.

Here are some basic stretching exercises that we can do without eating up a lot of our time or requiring a lot of space to perform.

First is the stretching exercise for the neck. This is a stretching exercise that we can do either standing or seated. It is down by turning our head from one side to another and holding them for at least 5 seconds on each side. This can be repeated three times or more if our body requires.

Second is the stretching exercise for our shoulder, back, arms, finger, wrist and hands. It is done by interlacing the finger with the palms facing outward direction. Extend the arms at a shoulder level to the front slowly. Hold this position for around 20 seconds and repeat at least three times.

Third is the stretching exercise for the ankle which may also help in relieving muscle cramps at the back of our lower leg. This is done by pointing the toes towards an outward direction and holding it for at least 10 seconds. Then point toes towards an upward direction and holding it for at least 10 seconds. This should be repeated at least three times.