Stretching and its benefits, first off it enables flexibility, one of the commonly known benefit of stretching is improving flexibility and range of motion. In turn this can improve your physical performance and help reduce your risk of injury.
Secondly it can promote increased recovery after weight training through relaxing the muscle and increasing blood flow to the area under stretch. It can tame tension both physically and mentally, as it relieves tight muscles while tricking you into feeling more relaxed.
Thirdly, a stretch sessions in a part of the day where you are feeling lethargic can be beneficial to waking up the body through increased blood flow around the body, including the brain. A mixture of static (still holds) and dynamic (stretch through movement) are advised.
Foam rollers can also be used on soft tissue on the outside of the body with applied pressure. Lying on top of one or pressing into a roller against a hard object delivers great results. The benefits of hitting the different tight trigger points can be beneficial for increasing movement through muscles and joints, and as we know reduces risk of injury and allows for full range of motion in our weight training exercises. A reason as to why you want range of motion is stimulating more muscle fibres through the eccentric and concentric (work phase) of an exercise, meaning more calories being exerted and more lean muscle tissue growing as a result of weight training muscle overload stimulus.
Our Personal Trainers conduct stretches on our clients at the end of each sessions to ensure you maintain flexibility and increased recovery, whilst having whole body mobility as well. Stretching is sometimes overlooked, but does play a vital role in not only exercise but general wellbeing through all aspects of life, best of all anyone can do it and only takes a small part of the day to do it.
