Patient Exercises
The Importance of Stretching Exercises
When to stretch?
Stretching before your workout will put your Central Nervous System (CNS) to sleep to increase your range of motion. It will result with less gain than improvement on the muscle part. The CNS naturally provides resistance by stimulating antagonists muscles when you flex a muscle to prevent it from being too stretched and tear your conjunctive tissues. Never stretch prior to workout, and always do it after.
Stretching will ensure you have an optimal circulation of body fluids throughout your system and an adequate flexibility which will prevent your connective tissues to pop when you contract your muscle
Benefits of Stretching
Being flexible can help to prevent injuries. This can include acute injuries, such as a hamstring strain and overuse
injuries such as IT band syndrome or plantar fasciitis. Stretching has been used in the warm-up process for many
years. It is thought that having flexible muscles can prevent acute injuries by gently stretching the muscle through its
range before exercise. Dynamic (active) stretches are now recommended for warm-ups, over the traditional static
stretch
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) occurs 24-48 hours after exercise. It is thought to be due to microscopic
tears in the muscle. Stretching before and after training is thought to minimise this damage.
In many cases of poor posture which has developed over time, muscle imbalances are to blame. A good example is the
chest muscles becoming shortened in people who slouch over a computer for long periods. Stretching these muscles
can help to improve posture.
Many sports obviously require high levels of flexibility, for example athletics and gymnastics. But even athletes in sports
such as Rugby, where flexibility is not immediately thought of as a key component, can improve their performance by
becoming more flexible. In order to have healthy muscles, they must be flexible. This will help to prevent injuries as
already discussed, but it will also allow you to develop strength through the full range of motion at the joint. This gives
an advantage over someone who has a limited range.
Muscle tightness is often associated with stress – we tend to tighten up when stressed. For example the neck muscles.
Stretching relaxes these muscles and you at the same time!
If you’re totally spent by midafternoon, a stretch break will invigorate you in less time than it would take for a barista to
whip up your usual mocha venti skim latte. Just a few minutes of stretching increases blood flow through your entire
body. Basically, it wakes you up and helps you feel less sluggish
Regular stretching can relieve stiff muscles and creaky joints, but to reap those benefits, it’s important to stretch the
correct way. Focus on mobility by doing range-of-motion exercises and soft tissue work with foam rollers.” Range-ofmotion exercises include shoulder shrugs, wrist bends, and knee lifts—anything that keeps your muscles and joints
moving through (you guessed it!) their full range of motion.
Unless you’re a yogi or a barre aficionado, flexibility may not seem like a huge priority. But regular stretching can help
you achieve better form in just about any workout: For something like a squat, it means you could get a deeper squat.
Your knees and hip flexors will bend farther. In short you’ll get more out of the workout.”
Exercise is well known for helping keep glucose levels in check, and it turns out that benefit might kick in even before
you lace up your sneakers: A 2011 study of adults who had type 2 diabetes or were prediabetic found that those who
stretched for 40 minutes after drinking a sugary beverage had lower blood sugar levels than those who did “mock
stretching”— in other words, assumed the same positions but didn’t actually stretch their muscles.
Are your shoulders practically touching your ears? Is your back in knots? Stretching can help tame tension both
physically and mentally, as it relieves tight muscles while tricking you into feeling more relaxed. (Try this 60-second fix
for a sore neck.) Just don’t overdo it, especially if you’re wound pretty tight: “Stretching should never be forced,” Drass
says. “You should be able to relax into a stretch. If you’re in pain, you’re doing it wrong.”
This is the most obvious benefit of regular stretching and usually the reason that people start a stretching programme.
However, reasons for stretching usually go much deeper than this. For example, why do you want to increase your
flexibility? Is it to improve your sporting performance, posture, or prevent injury?
How to Stretch
- Place the back of one hand in the small of your back.
- With your opposite hand, grab your elbow, gently pull forward, and hold.
- Repeat with the opposite side.
- Reach up with one arm.
- Bend your elbow and put your forearm down behind your head and between your shoulder blades.
- With your opposite arm, reach up and grab your raised elbow.
- Pull your elbow toward your head.
- Repeat with other arm.
- Put your arms straight out to your sides with your thumbs facing up.
- Rotate your arms so that your thumbs face straight back, then rotate them forward until your thumbs are facing
straight down
- Hold one arm out in front of you with your elbow bent (and close to your body) and palm facing up.
- With your opposite hand, grab your fingertips and slowly pull them all the way down until that hand is now
facing the floor. - Continue to pull on your fingertips, now in an upward direction since your palm is facing down.
- Repeat with other hand.
- Stand up and pull one leg behind you (flamingo position).
- Once holding onto your foot, continue to apply upward pressure.
- Repeat with other leg
- Place one leg in front of the other (split stance) with your hands on your hips.
- Lean slightly forward as you begin to straighten your back leg, ideally bringing your back foot all the way flat
against the floor. - Repeat with other leg
- Sit on the floor with both feet out in front of you.
- Reach out with both arms, ideally grabbing onto your toes and holding.
- Lie flat on the ground with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Get into a figure four position by placing one ankle on your opposite knee.
- Reach through and around your knee, clasp, pull it toward you, and hold.
- Repeat with opposite side
- Sit on the floor.
- Press the soles of your feet together (butterfly position).
- Pull your feet as close to your body as possible.
- Put your hands on your ankles to where your elbows are lined up with your knees.
- Push against your elbows trying to close your legs. (This contracts your groin muscles to help you get a deeper
stretch.) - Push your knees down
- Reach both hands behind you and then up over your head (as if to perform a butterfly stroke in swimming).
- Continue to swing your arms over your head and out in front of you.
- Try to keep both arms parallel to the floor as you are holding the stretch.
- To maintain balance, sit back slightly with your knees partially bent.
- Incline your head forward, but do not roll your head from side to side-this is dangerous. Instead, stretch your
neck to the left, right, forward and back, but always return to center first! - Tilt your head with ear toward shoulder, incline your head backward and roll your head from left to right, then
right to left in a 30 degree motion. - Be sure that while your head is tilted back, you keep your jaw relaxed and even let your mouth fall open just a
bit
- Incline your head back, rest your chin on your palm, and pull your jaw open.
- Say “Ah!” (you can mime it).
- Grab your chin with your thumb, index and middle fingers.
- Stretch it left to right. This exercise will help if you have been hit to the jaw (e.g., knocked-out in boxing)