Do you know what flexibility training exercises are and more importantly do you use them in your workouts? Whether it's for fitness or sports, flexibility can help oprevent injury and make you stronger.
Most people focus on strength and cardio when they exercise, looking to lose weight or get stronger, but flexibility is the third pillar of fitness, and can help you to achieve your goals in other areas.
Flexibility training can provide a number of benefits that can help you to train harder and better, including ; strength through a greater range of motion; fewer injuries and faster recovery between workouts.
However, to reap these benefits you have to train smart. There are certain ways of stretching that will help you to improve your flexibility.
- When you stretch :
Most people stretch as part of their warm up, but research shows that this is not only ineffective, it can in fact be counter-productive. Thus the time to stretch is at the end of your workout, as part of your cool down, when the muscles are already warm.
- How to stretch :
Stretching is about pushing yourself to the point of tightness, then relaxing. Pushing too hard is counter-productive - the body has a stretch reflex that tightens you up if you push too hard.
- What to stretch :
Balance is important in stretching. If you only stretch a few areas of the body you will get out of balance with the tighter areas pulling against the more flexible ones. Therefore whatever your sport, be sure to stretch the whole body.
Throughout the site we focus on workouts and training programs - this is one area you need to include in your everyday fitness to help with your fitness!
