3 Essential Stretches You Need to Know
When it comes to stretching, there are innumerable stretches that you can do, all of which can help you become more flexible, increase mobility, and reduce muscle and joint pain. But, with so many to choose from, it can be hard to know which ones to do.
Of course if you have a certain part of your body that you want to focus on, then you can do various stretches for that part of the body. However, if you’re looking for stretches that help your entire body, then there are a few other ones that you’ll need to do. Use these 3 daily to start!
1. Side Bend
This stretch will stretch out your abdominal, back, and lateral muscles as well as your hips.
Begin the stretch from a standing position with your feet in line with your shoulders. Reach your hands over your head and press the palms of your hands together as high as you can reach. Take a deep breath in and pull your spine as straight and tall as you can manage.
As you exhale, bend your body to the right so that you can feel the stretch through your arm and down your left side. Be sure to maintain a good form by keeping your arms and upper body in the same position. Hold the pose for 60 seconds, maintaining deep breathing throughout. Then, return to an upright position as you exhale and do the same thing to the left.
Although not quite as effective, this stretch can also be done from a chair.
2. Chest Opener
This stretch focuses on your chest muscles, triceps, and shoulders.
Begin from a standing or sitting position. Then, reach your arms behind your head, clasping your hands at the back of your head. As you take a deep breath in, lift your chest as you pull your elbows back and keep your hands anchored behind your head.
Relax your position slightly as you exhale, then continue to stretch your chest and arm muscles further with each subsequent breath. You should maintain this pose for 10 slow breaths or 60 seconds.
3. Quad Stretch
Use this stretch to improve range of motion in your knees and to stretch out your quadriceps.
While standing, lift your right foot up and grab it with your right hand at the ankle. Gently pull your heel to your glute until you can feel the stretch in the front of your leg. Keep your knees as close together as you hold the pose for 60 seconds. Once you finish on one side, you can do the same with the left leg.
This pose can only be done while standing. If you are worried about maintaining balance during this stretch, you can hold onto a sturdy piece of furniture or use a wall to steady yourself while performing this essential stretch.
By doing these 3 essential stretches every day, you will quickly see improvements in these parts of the body in terms of flexibility and mobility.
If you need more stretches that you can do at home or at the office using a chair, try these!
Stretching Frequency and Volume
How Often Should I Stretch?
You should be doing stretches every day. This is important because in order to see results from stretching exercises, you need to stretch at least 6 times per week. So, making it a daily thing will ensure that you get those 6 stretching sessions in every week, even if something comes up and you have to skip a day. Plus, an extra stretching session surely won’t hurt anything.
How Much Stretching Should I Do?
The minimum amount of stretching that you need to be doing to see results is one minute per muscle per day. Although you can certainly stretch for longer if you want, studies have shown that it’s usually the first 60-second stretch that has the most impact on flexibility. It’s also best to do this as one 60-second stretch rather than trying to break it up throughout the day.
Full Body Verses Split Stretch Routine
A full body stretch routine is one in which every muscle in the body is stretched, either one at a time, or in groups. This type of stretching is often focused on in yoga, as the poses engage and stretch multiple areas of the body at once. The main benefit of full body stretching is that it ensures that every part of your body is stretched every day.
You can try a full body stretch routine here
Split stretch routines are ones that focus only on one muscle group or part of the body at a time. These are typically split up throughout the week, so that a different area of the body is stretched every day. The idea is that this gives those muscles time to rest and recover in between. This has the benefit of being a much shorter stretching session since you’re only doing a few muscles every day. It is important to warm up your body for 10–15 min with light cardio before jumping into static stretching.
While the only drawback of the full body stretch routine is that it takes up a larger portion of your day, there are several to the split stretch routines. Since it may not be possible for you to get in 6 stretches per muscle per week if you’re stretching different muscles every day, you may not see the benefits that you would if you stretched everything every day.
Bottom Line
The best way to benefit from stretching is to do a full body stretch routine every day, in which every muscle in your body is stretched for at least 60 seconds.
For more way on how to stretch, visit my YouTube channel and browse the different full body stretch routines.
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