Importance of Stretching

Stretching does more for your body than merely leaving you smooth, flexible and injury free. Stretching allows you to move better and ultimately gain better posture and can help in preventing things like arthritis.

A lot of people jump right into the gym or their exercises without stretching first and that can cause a lot of damage to your muscles. It is highly important that after a workout, even in the morning when you wake up to thoroughly stretch your muscles. A common mistake that many people make while doing their stretching exercises is the bouncing movement while in the stretch. This isn’t the proper way to effectively stretch your muscles because it's a sharp, abrupt movement which can cause damage to the muscles. Focusing more on the specific muscle that you are stretching and gradually push your limit without causing yourself pain is typically the more effective way of stretching.

Additionally, moving slowly and gently into the stretch is typically correct way. When practiced correctly, stretching is an essential part of any fitness regimen and can help you to avoid injury, increase flexibility and have better posture.

Some stretching exercises include:

-       Abdominal Lat Stretch

-       Abdominal Twists

-       Hurdles Stretch

-       Standing Hamstring Stretch

-       Chest and Bicep Flexibility Stretch

-       Forearm Stretch

-       Calf Stretch

-       Butt and Hamstring Stretch

-       Groin Stretch

-       Neck Rotations

-       Triceps and Lat Stretch

Stretching exercises help to relieve stress as they get the blood flowing - improving circulation while adding flexibility and relieving muscle tension. Working all day, no matter what your day consists of, our bodies become tense, and starting your stretch right from when you wake up enforces many benefits for our body’s muscles and bones.

Posted By: Nicole Spadafora

Learning To Manage Stress

     Stress plays a big part in peoples lives today, this is why we need to learn different techniques to manage stress.  People seem to have no time to relax and everyone is always on the go.  We need to think about taking care of our bodies and health before its to late.  Here are some ways we can learn to manage stress.

     Before learning on how to manage your stress, you first need to recognize that you feel stressed.  If your diagnostics is positive, here are some ways to manage stress and get back on your feet.
    
     We need to avoid stressful situations.  Try not to take on situations that add to your busy lifestyle.  Don't get involved with other peoples situations or business.  This will linger in your mind as another task that needs to be looked after, but not.

     Set realistic goals.  Don't set goals that are impossible to meet.  Your not superwomen or superman.  This will make you stressed out.

     Change how you see the situation.  If something doesn't go the way you planned, try not to stress.  If your having a bad day, its not the end of the world.  We tend to make such big deals out of nothing and we need to learn to control this by taking a deep breath and saying to yourself that "It's okay."  There are always alternatives to every situation.

     SLEEP! A lack of sleep just aggrevates stress!

     Set Priorities.  Don't overwhelm yourself by fretting your entire workload.  Deal with manners in some priority.  Handle each task as it comes.

     Discover new relaxation techniques.  Meditating and breathing are excellent relaxation techniques.  It calms the body and mind down allows you to think more openly and clearly.

     Exercise.  Exercise  is the bodies best medicine.  It allows you to feel less stressed and allows you to think more clearly.  Anytype of exercise such as cardio or strength training is excellent.

    

All these techniques are effective.  Managing stress with proper techniques along with sleep is most benefical to ones body!