Have you ever felt the pain while bending to pick something from the ground? Ever felt the pain while trying to stretch your arms to get something out of the cupboard above? Do your limbs or joints pain while you stretch them even a bit?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, then humans lack the practice of stretching.

Stretching keeps the body active, flexible, and fresh throughout. If you're looking to explore the process and powers of stretching, then you are at the right place.

Here, in the article, we discuss A to Z about stretching, its benefits to some tips to incorporate healthy stretching into your daily routine.

What is stretching?

Stretching could be understood as the simple practice of extending your arms, legs, and body to a length. It opens up the muscles, releases tension, and helps the body to be light and active.

Stretching is done pre and after exercise, workout, sport, and game. It is always advisable to incorporate stretching into your daily routine. Whether you're a school-going student, a teenager, a housewife, a working man or a woman, or even an old person, stretching has different forms and can be done by anyone in any age group to keep their body in motion, flexible, and fresh.

From basic to advanced, stretching is an exercise that maintains muscle movements, releases joint tension, improves flexibility, and also helps in the recovery of the body.

Practices of stretching

Basic stretching

Basic stretching involves easy stretches of the hands and legs. It doesn't involve much pressure and can be done at ease by persons of older age and persons with injuries. It is advisable by the doctors to have 10-15 minutes of basic stretching in the morning after you wake up.

Advanced stretching

Advanced stretching is what is done by sports professionals and fitness enthusiasts.

It involves stretches that are of higher intensity.

Advanced Stretching includes complete body stretching, from fingers to wrist to the ankle and whole body. High-intensity stretches such as Spinal Twist, Butterfly Stretch, Cobra pose, etc. The time devoted to advanced stretching is much more than that to basic stretching. Also, these are on the higher end than basic stretching.

Static stretching

Static stretching involves holding a position for an extended amount of time so that connective tissues and muscles can progressively lengthen. Performing static stretches when muscles are warm after a workout improves flexibility and overall capacity and readiness of the body to face further challenges.

A Few examples of Static Stretching are Body-length Stretch, Neck and Shoulder Stretch, etc. These are performed with zero to fewer movements from a place.

Dynamic stretching

Dynamic stretching involves all major muscle groups of the body progressively improving the reach, speed, and overall muscle endurance assisting in the quality of the workouts. As per physical therapists, "dynamic stretching primes muscles for activity. It's excellent for improving performance before a workout."

Some Dynamic Stretching exercises are Backpedal Jogs, Power Skips, High-Stepping, etc.

Benefits of Stretching

Enhanced Flexibility

Stretching helps in the overall enhancement of body flexibility. Stretching improves and maintains the range of motion that is helpful when you do certain tasks in your daily life. Whether it's joints or muscles, stretching acts as a lubricant to keep them in healthy motion.

A key part of enhanced flexibility is increased blood flow to the body. Increased blood circulation helps the body stay active, prepared, and healthy throughout, improving your ability to perform various tasks easily.

Also, at the time of injury, stretching exercises can help in the recovery of muscle movement and retain the lost action of the body.

Reduce Stress

Stretching helps reduce stress that you may face in everyday life. It releases tension in the muscles and keeps the body lighter, aids in increased relaxation, and reduces stress.

Studies show that stretching before going to bed can significantly lower cortisol levels in the body, and help improve sleep quality. Stretching also calms the body down, resulting in higher relaxation levels.

Stretching exercises including arms, legs, shoulders, and neck can have a visible impact on stress reduction which you can try on after having a day full of stress.

Injury prevention

Injuries to various muscles and joints can be prevented and reverted by incorporating stretching into one's routine.

If you are someone who deals with pain and difficulties in performing simple bodily movements then stretching for 10-15 minutes per day could highly improve your chances of getting better with reduced pain.

Tips and tricks on stretching

• Do it the right way - Stretching as an exercise is not callous to perform. However, it involves a few steps and knowledge to do it the better way. Apart from taking guidance from a professional, what you could do to get the best results out of stretching and doing it the right way is what we discuss here. Holding each stretch for a proper period is of great importance. You must know when to release a stretch for it has some impact on your body.

• Warm Up and Breathing - Getting started with a warm such as a little jog or a bit of body movement is always helpful before beginning your stretching session. It warms up and opens up your body for complete movements. Breathing while stretching is helpful in proper blood and air circulation to the body. It somehow helps in relaxation, comfort, and ease while you are tangled in stretches.

• Be Gentle - Stretching requires you to be gentle with yourself. It is not something that is highly intensive or requires much strength, rather one must first embrace their body to get started with stretching. Knowing what type your body is, how you want increased flexibility, and how much time and body power you can put in are some basic things you must keep in mind while starting out stretching.

• Planned Routine - Another thing is to have a planned routine for stretching. This is undoubted, as one must do things in a routine, allocating the proper time and exercising is something that asks for it. The urge to be consistent and dedicated is what stretching also requires from you, however easy it maybe.

• Daily Practice - Whether you're allocating time in the morning evening or night, it should be fixed and done daily. It is not a hardbound rule, but staying consistent with only a little bit of stretching will help your body never get tired, your muscles won't feel the pain and you'd feel the impact of enhanced activeness.

Conclusion

So, if you've thought of getting started with stretching and incorporating it into your daily routine, whether it's before a workout or even before you start your day, we wish you luck. Stretching as an exercise takes a long to work, it is not something that you will see instant results of rather it will take time to open your body and muscles up and once it is done, you will be able to find its effects and benefits each day.

You can also check out FitnEarn's plans on stretching that you can easily perform from your comfort place, according to needs, i.e., body type, age, etc.