Before You Stretch 3 Mistakes That Can Damage Your Body
Stretching keeps your muscles flexible and your limbs agile to prepare for physical activities, from going on a light jog to hiking in the mountains. The consequences of not stretching can put you at risk of injury from microtears in your joints and pulled muscles. However, you can also harm your body if you don’t follow proper stretching practices and techniques.
The importance of proper stretching
Regularly stretching your body is an excellent way to enhance your agility and flexibility, even if you’re not going to engage in physical activities. It reduces the risk of injuries and promotes healthy blood flow to your different systems. However, you can still injure yourself if you’re not stretching for the right reasons. Instead of helping your body maintain its health, you may end up damaging it instead.
In this article, we will share three stretching mistakes that you should avoid.
1. Warming up with static stretching
Warm-up stretches are some of the most common pre-workout routines that people perform. People often see it as a static stretching session where you loosen up your different limbs. However, this doesn’t do much to prepare you for heavy physical activities.
The best type of stretching to do before a workout is to perform dynamic stretching. This enhances your muscle activation and enhances your full range of motion. It includes trunk rotations, leg swings, lunges and going a few minutes with a jumping rope. The correct way to use static stretching is to cool down to relax your muscles and release tension for your post-exercise.
2. Targeting the wrong muscle groups
Like the problem with misplacing static and dynamic stretching, you should also perform the right exercises for the appropriate limbs. If you’re aiming for a specific body group for your workout or prepping to play a sport, you must do the right exercises. A sprinter would need more stretches covering the lower body like lunges, high knees and butt kicks. In contrast, a wall climber would need to target the full body with inchworms and jumping jacks.
It’s not enough to target the right body parts when warming up or cooling down your body. You should always maintain a 30-second duration for your pre-exercise stretches. On the other hand, you should aim to hold your static stretching positions for a minimum of 60 seconds for the post-workout cooldown.
3. Overstretching your muscles
Although you should expect minor discomfort when stretching, you shouldn’t be in pain when doing so. Overstretching creates muscle strains and excessive neural tension of the nerves. Pushing your body to the limit can create various adverse effects. It can lead to hypermobility, which makes tendons loose, unstable and prone to injury. Remember to know your body’s limits and only apply ample force when stretching your limbs.
Don’t forget to avoid stretching if you have injuries, especially in your limbs. The increase in blood flow could compromise your open wounds’ healing or add pressure to your already inflamed body part.
Conclusion
It’s typical for people to undermine injuries from stretching because it rarely happens. Nevertheless, its small yet gradual and permanent effects can compromise your body’s overall health. This is why you should learn about the proper way to stretch and the consequences of not doing so.
Stretch Studio can give you one-on-one assisted stretching in Brisbane, focusing on the many powerful effects of stretching to the human body. Our flexologists expertly perform these stretching sessions to ensure that you’re performing the right forms and poses. Book a session with us today to learn more about how our assisted stretching services can improve your lifestyle!