The Most Overlooked Secret to Weightlifting Success: Stretching

 

As time passes, your muscles become stiff and the flexibility of your joints is reduced. It is necessary to stretch your muscles every day before you start your weightlifting exercises. Stretching is an important exercise for people of all ages. The biggest benefits that stretching offer you is, an increases in your range of motion, and protection from injury.
Stretching comes naturally to each and every one of us. You stretch after sitting in a particular position for a long time. Stretching has lots of beneficial properties.

• It improves the blood circulation and flexibility of your muscles.
• People who stretch regularly will have less musculoskeletal complaints.
• Post workout stretching ensures speedy recovery of muscles and decreases lactic acid accumulation.
• Stretching also has beneficial action over tendons and joints.
• Stretching before a workout schedule will tune your body and mind for the strenuous task ahead.
• It has a relaxing effect, and is a good stress buster.
• It improves the balance and coordination of various body parts.
• It is a good prophylactic measure against chronic conditions like lower back pain and joint pain.

Stretching is an exercise that can be done anywhere and at any time. People who do weight lifting need to include pre-and post workout stretching in their schedule. Compared to a normal individual it is easier for a weight lifting trainee to injure himself if he skips his daily stretching routine.

• Stretch before you perform any vigorous activity or weight lifting.
• Stretching should be performed slowly.
• Each and every major muscle group should be included in your stretching routine.
• Stretching should be done daily for at least 15 min.
• Use static hold, PNF techniques like contract-relax, hold-relax to perform stretching.

It has been proved scientifically that, stretching in between weight lifting sets accelerates muscle growth and reduces the chance of sprains and injury. Stretching should be done for a group of muscles immediately after weight training them. Stretching substantially cuts down on the muscle recovery time. New researches have proved that stretching between sets appears to have beneficial effect on muscle contraction. This indirectly increases the power of that particular muscle group. Stretching also helps in lactic acid absorption, hence reducing muscle fatigue.
Below, you can see a sample stretching routine which will help you in understanding the basics of stretching.

• Neck- stand straight, rotate your head in a circular motion for 12 times and then repeat it in the opposite direction.
• Ankles and knees-flex, extend and rotate them in both directions.
• Hips- rotate your hips in a circular motion in both directions.
• Upper body-stand straight locking your hands in front of your body, Bend forward so that your chest touches your knees.
• Shoulders- flex your elbows and touch your shoulders with your fingers. Now rotate your shoulders in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction.
• Legs- stand straight, placing your feet at shoulder width. Squat down till your thighs are parallel to the floor, hold the position for a few seconds and stand up again.
• Hamstrings- stand straight, placing your feet at shoulder width. Pushing your body up, stand on your toe base, hold the position for a few seconds and return back.

Stretching is an exercise routine that is inevitably included in all professional weight lifting programs. It is followed by a beginner as well as an advanced bodybuilder.
Until the next article, "Be Your Best"
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