Why You Should Stretch

If you don’t stretch out much, you should! Stretching is one of the most important parts when beginning and ending an exercise but also during the day. Apart from the fact that it prevents strain and sprains, there are other benefits of stretching. Today, we are showing the importance of stretching daily with its top 5 benefits:

1. Injury Prevention

While helping our muscles to warm up and prepare before being stressed into the intense exercises, stretching allows a longer range of motion of our muscles. In case you don’t stretch out before a workout, you may produce a shock to your muscles with the intensity of a workout which can lead to pain and soreness afterwards.

2. Improve Flexibility

Stretching constantly means making yourself more flexible. It is a common fact that there are activities requiring flexibility, such as dancing and kicks as well as sprint and dashes. In fact, being flexible is being healthy and with stretching on a daily basis, you will definitely handle many tasks with ease.

3. Reduce Stress And Improve Posture

Simply, stress causes our muscles to tighten and become knots which can cause strain and back pains. The tension may also cause other negative effects to our body, but with stretching, the oxygen needed in our muscles is back and regulated, while also regulating our brain and heart. With that, stretching helps in releasing endorphins, or commonly known as ‘feel-good’ hormones, which improve our mood and make us feel good, therefore lowering our stress while preventing posture pains.

4. Promote Better Breathing And Oxygen Flow

Stretching helps the oxygen flow in and through our body better and with that also helps the blood circulation. It also reduces body pains and sores caused from the uptightness and tension coming from the lack of oxygen within our body.

5. More Effective Exercise

Stretching should not only be done before, but also after exercising. When stretching, you can release the lactic acid that is built up in your muscles while you exercise and very often introduces our muscles to fatigue and soreness. Therefore, the ‘cool down’ exercises help in workout recovery, decreasing muscle soreness and proper condition of the muscles.

The beauty of stretching is that it takes a minimal time in the whole workout or exercise process, as well as in our daily activities. Stretching has so many benefits and its importance to our overall health is often underrated. Try and add some more stretching in your day as well as around your workouts and training sessions. You’ll be sure to see the difference.