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Stretching has been used more recently in sports training. Trying to define the word “stretch” in a literal sense would bring you the meaning “to make your arms, legs, and body as straight as possible so that your muscles become long and tight.” That means your muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments in particular.

Stretching has always been the first step in doing any activities and sports that require good joint mobility as well as supple muscles including gymnastics and martial arts. Although they went through a number of transformations, most gymnasts and martial artists are practicing Yoga, and the different positions used in Yoga inspired movements used in stretching.

The primary reason why stretching is a must before doing any physical activity and exercise is that, it makes your muscles and joints supple. When your muscles are limber, it will be easier to execute routines and you will be able to minimize feeling muscle pains afterwards. Some even believe that stretching should be used both for relaxation as well as when warming up. However, there are others who think that stretching should only be done for the purposes of relaxation because the movements commonly used in stretching facilitates  a state of feeling relaxed, something that is undesirable at the start of the training. That state of relaxation is from keeping the passive phase of positions.

But generally, anyone would agree that stretching needs to be anticipated by warming up. That way the person can avoid tightening his or her muscles. A general warm up includes aerobic exercises and would take about 5 minutes of the workout. If you do not warm your muscles up properly before stretching, then you will be taking the chance of ending up with a pulled muscle. If you are undergoing weight and resistance training, stretching should be included in your every session – the training will be only be successful if you include a couple of stretching exercises during training.

But besides its obvious reason, people also stretch because it is an effective stress-reliever. The muscles store excess tensions when you are under physical or emotional stress. When you stretch, you are actually targeting stress-ridden areas and are able to dispel these tensions as you stretch. However, the most important reason for stretching is to keep a proper posture. Our backs can get easily stiff because it can only move in three directions, and since our back is the one that holds our musculoskeletal system together, it is then important that we keep in as much fluid and be as flexible as possible.

It is recommended that you stretch at least three times a week, preferably in the mornings after you take a hot bath (warm shower warms up your muscles), or at the end of the day when your body has warmed up naturally. It is also very important that you get your stretch on before and after every Beachbody workout.  Take Insanity for example, they actually have a lot of stretching in the workout videos so you will getting very limber by the end of it.  Just make sure that if you have any questions, you contact me.  I am a Beachbody Coach and I love to talk about fitness and health.