The Benefits of Stretching

I find stretching almost like a form of relaxation, it is a great way to wake you up in the morning and an absolute necessity following a workout. See below for why it is so important to stretch...

INJURY PREVENTION

Stretching has so many benefits, with injury prevention being one of the most key. Performing dynamic (moving) stretches before you exercise increases the heart rate, pumps blood to the working muscles, lubricates and mobilises the joints and muscles ready for further more intense exercise. This helps to protect your body from injury, hence why it is called a warm up, because you are warming up the joint and muscles!

HELPS TO PREVENT SORE MUSCLES

Performing cool down stretches, basically does what it says on the tin and does the opposite of a warm up... it reduces the heart rate and stretches the muscles out, which removes lactic acid from the working muscles. Lactic acid is a waste product produced when we exercise and removing this from the muscles prevents Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. DOMS is the pain/ache we have in our muscles usually a day or two following a workout, which is made much worse by not stretching or cooling down. So if you want to be able to sit down on the toilet the day after a big leg session, make sure you get those cool down stretches in!

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY AND CALMS YOUR MIND

Flexibility is linked with injury prevention, as the more flexible you are the less likely you are to become injured. I also enjoy yoga and flexiblity is something that really helps with this, which brings me onto the next benefit that stretching can help to calm your mind. When stretching your body can completely relax and you can find yourself almost going into a meditative state.

IMPROVES YOUR POSTURE

Stretching regularly can improve your posture, for example if you have tight shoulders it may result in you curving forwards and arching your back resulting in poor posture, this can then lead to injury.

RKFITNESSLONDON STRETCH AND YOGA WORKOUTS

If you would like to stretch more often, but don't know where to start, as well as follow along to a fun and easy stretch and yoga workout, then sign up to RKFITNESSLONDON WORKOUTS to gain access to these stretching sessions and much more! Click the RKFITNESS WORKOUTS page of this website.