Stretching seems to be much more at the forefront of fitness these days
compared to the past. Stretching is now regarded as much more of a
specialist practice within the whole fitness craze.
It is certainly true that stretching deserves its new place at the
very heart of any general fitness regime that you engage in. There are
several reasons for this. One is that you are much less likely to suffer
any injury from muscles that are not properly warmed up if you include
some basic stretching exercises as an essential part of your warm up
regime. Stretching is also the very best form of exercise to keep you
supple - particularly important as you get older.
Quite apart from the undoubted physical benefits to be gained from a
daily stretching regime it's also well-known that it helps to relieve
stress that can manifest in tight muscles.
So, what exactly is stretching? It's a form of exercise (movement)
that increases the range of motion of your limbs and improves the
general flexibility of your body.
Stretching exercises can be as simple as turning your head from side
to side several times or reaching forward to touch your toes - or as
close to this as you can manage!
As you start to incorporate regular stretching exercises into your
daily routine you will very quickly notice that your muscles become much
more flexible in the range of movements they're capable of going
through without protest or injury. What this then means in practice is
that you are much more able to deal with everything life has to throw at
you from a physical perspective which will help to reduce your mental
stress.
If you think about it you will very soon realize just how much of a
benefit increased flexibility will be to you in all kinds of little,
regular ways in your daily life. Things like bending down to pick things
up or reaching for something on a high shelf are fairly regular
occurrences which will become much more comfortable to perform after
you've implemented a regular stretching routine.
All of this takes on an added significance as you age. If you don't
take any form of regular exercise you'll certainly find you'll lose a
huge amount of flexibility as you start to get older.
Certainly as you age you will notice huge benefits from the
non-impact form of exercise that stretching is and it will definitely
help to mitigate some of the aging effects on the body such as reduced
mobility.
Hopefully the foregoing has prompted you to add a stretching
component to any daily exercise routine you already practice - and if
you don't practice any regular exercise regime then hopefully you've
learned that some basic daily stretching will work wonders for your
physical flexibility. Go on, give it a try!
