Are you doing your stretches in the most effective way? Stretching is something we do on a daily basis sometimes without realizing it, like when we first wake up in the morning or standing after sitting for a long period of time.
In physiotherapy we have a saying that we go by, ‘use it or lose it’. It addresses that fact the less you use a muscle or joint the more you will loose movement in that area. We can apply that saying here with our stretching. The less we stretch, the tighter our muscles get, the more range of movement we lose. In this day and age most of us live a sedentary lifestyle due to work or other stresses which can affect our muscles and natural flexibility.
But one thing worse than not doing any stretches at all is actually stretching improperly. When we stretch there are a couple things we want to do to make our stretches more effective, and some things we want to avoid doing to prevent injury.
What to avoid doing:
When stretching we want to avoid bouncing or rocking, this movement could stretch the muscle more than necessary and can cause injury.
We want to avoid holding our breath when stretching. Stretching is a relaxing process for our body but when we hold our breath it tenses our body doing the opposite effect of what we’re going for.
Only holding a stretching for a couple seconds is essentially not doing anything for our muscles.
How to make our stretches more effective:
For the most effective stretch you want to make sure you’re holding the stretch for at least 20-30 seconds.
When stretching you should feel a mild tightness or tension but never pain! Find the sweet spot in your stretch that is enough to feel the tightness but not to far where pain is felt and potential for injury to occur
Breathing through your stretches is also key! When we breathe our body relaxes on its own and can allow for a deeper stretch.
Rest is another essential part, between stretches we want to allow for a 30 second break. This break can allow us to go further in our second round of stretching on the same muscle.
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