Benefits of Stretching Before, After, and During a Workout
Many people don’t really understand the benefits of stretching. In most cases, they stretch as they complete their exercise routine. Alternatively, stretching can occur just before you start exercising. If you’ve ever wondered when it’s best to stretch before, during, or after your workout, you’re not alone. Knowing when is best can be confusing.
This article describes the benefits of stretching and how and when to include it in your routine.
Benefits of stretching
Let’s take a look at the benefits of stretching and take a comprehensive look at when to implement stretching in your exercise program.
Stretching Before Exercise
Opening your body and starting your workout with stretching is ideal for accessing a wider range of movements in your athletic performance. There are several reasons to stretch before exercising.
1. Prevent Injury
Stretching reduces the risk of tearing muscle fibers and tissues. This can be caused by pushing your body too quickly. If you exercise straight without any warm-up or movement, you’re most likely to get injured.
2. Get Fresh Oxygen Flow
Insufficient oxygen flow can reduce performance and lead to serious joint damage. If these areas are not supplied with oxygen-rich blood, you may experience pain, and tension when you start exercising. Stretching stimulates the flow of fresh oxygen through the bloodstream to the rest of the body. This not only relieves pain and reduces injuries, but also helps perform movements.
3. Reduce Fatigue
Stretching before training allows you to withstand longer workouts, as you are less likely to experience muscle fatigue. Stretching awakens areas that require the most time and encouragement to wake up, allowing you to carry yourself effectively through longer workouts.
4. Increases Energy and Motivation
Blood collects in muscles that have not been used or extended. As mentioned above, you will feel an increase in energy levels by restoring muscle circulation. Blood also flows to the brain (especially when it extends through the back and spine), increasing concentration and providing inspiration to start training.
5. Improve Performance
This is in line with all the above benefits of stretching before training. You give your body fresh oxygen, reduce the risk of injury, reduce fatigue and increase your energy. It generally improves your performance no matter what exercise you do, whether cardiovascular or physical fitness.
Stretching During Exercise
Thanks to advances in functional understanding of how the body moves, fitness professionals suggest that you should take stretch breaks during your workouts. The benefits of stretching are now more widely taught in good personal training courses, and modern fitness trainers will tell you this.
6. Increase Coordination
This is especially beneficial for those who work hard. Stretching when your muscles are tired or burned out is one way to reset your heart-to-muscle path. This allows you to feel more collaborative, update your techniques and stay safe for the rest of your workouts.
7. Get an Energy Boost
It’s also important to do this in the middle of your workout, as you’re supplying fresh oxygen during your workout. You will remain full of energy, and you will have energy again when you need it to survive difficult times.
8. Better Body Awareness
When you stretch, you feel your body, notice your tired and tense heartbeats and give yourself time to move smarter. This is a “stop, stretch, rate” situation. This is very useful
9. Reduce Lactic Acid Build Up
Lactic acid is definitely felt in the body, especially when your exercise is intense strength training or high-intensity interval training. Stretching helps remove it from the system. Lactic acid buildup can cause fatigue and pain, which can interfere with performance during the rest of the workout. Stretching helps relax muscles and dissolve accumulated lactic acid.
10. Deepen Body Movement
Stretching your muscles reduces the narrow areas of connective tissue, giving you more freedom of movement. Repetitive or strength exercises cause muscles to contract during exercise, so when switching to a new exercise, it’s best to reproduce the length to perform the exercise. For example, when running, stretch the quadriceps and thigh muscles before moving to the squat. That way, the squat will be deeper and better shaped.
Stretching After Exercise
Sure, it would be nice if we could just lie down and finish the workout when we were done, but research shows that people who don’t take the time to stretch after training will do it later with pain and stiffness and increased risk of muscle injury.
11. Immediate Muscle Repair
Stretching improves blood circulation so that your muscles relax and receive this oxygen and recover quickly.
Your heart rate drops after exercise, giving your body time to actually get blood flow. This will start the recovery process much faster than if you stopped without stretching.
12. Create More Flexibility
If you have a more flexible body, not only can you adopt some interesting forms of yoga, it also reduces muscle tension. After a few weeks of regular stretching after exercise, you will already see a difference in your flexibility.
Performing a deeper static stretch at the end of your workout gives you access to longer lengths on many parts of your body than you achieved before or during your workout.
Now that you have all the reasons to stretch at the beginning, middle, and end of your workout, go ahead and start stretching. Your body thanks you!
