Proper Stretching Techniques for Pre and Post Exercise

            Hello everyone and welcome.  For this month I decided to make my posts around stretching.  There will be 2 posts about this with the first post being about stretching prior to exercise and the next post will be about proper stretching after you exercise.

            Muscles are important to our bodies, they allow us to move.  In order to allow us to properly move, bend, and flex, our muscles need to properly work.  Not only will having tight non flexible muscle prevent proper movement and full range of motion, they can also leave a person prone to serious injury.  Therefore it is important to properly stretch prior to exercise as well as post exercise.  Stretching properly also increases blood flow to muscles which allows more oxygen into the muscles.  This increase of oxygen helps keep lactic acid at a minimal by using the lactic acid to help create more energy.

            Before stretching even begins, the muscles need to be warmed up for greatest efficiency.  A good way to properly warm your muscles is to take a light jog around a block, a lap on a track, or even jogging in place.  The warm up allows blood to travel to the muscles and helps stretch farther.  There are two forms of stretching and each has a proper time and place.  The first type of stretching is the dynamic stretch, which “involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both” (Kurz, Tomas, Science of Sports Training, page 236).

            Once your muscles are warmed up it is now time to start your dynamic stretches.  These can include arm circles, windmill toe touches, butt kicks, non-weighted lunges, leg swings, and open the gate.  All of these stretches involve movement of a specific joint or muscle.  This brings the area through its range of motion and causing blood to flow to the area which carries more oxygen and prepares muscle or joint for any activity.  If you do not do dynamic stretches prior but do static stretches instead you run the risk of damaging your SEC (Series Elastic Component), this is the part of your muscles that allows your muscle to stretch and retract back to its normal shape.  As with what Tomas Kurz says you want to stretch gently with no jerking or bouncing movements.  You muscle does stretch but it is not a rubber band and bouncing can cause injury and does not help to properly stretch your muscle.

            So remember that we warm up to stretch our muscles prior to an exercise.  Having our bodies warm and properly stretched before our activity will allow us to be more prepared for our work-out or sport activity.  Stayed tuned for my next post on Static Stretching.

Till Next Time

Bogo Out