We will talk about the subject of stretching. Any good sportsman who respects himself must go through a few stretching sessions at a given time without always really knowing why that said. We know that stretching is a good thing, but from there to see the purpose of this operation, there is a small gap that many practitioners do not necessarily cross.
In this article, I will, therefore, spend a little time talking to you about the interest of stretching, how to do it preferably and above all, when it is interesting to stretch. Before training or after? I know some of you are asking yourself this question.
So, let’s not waste time and let’s go for a little reading on the subject friends!
Post-Workout Stretching
I decided to talk about this stretch first, simply because it is the most common. To discover your stretches a little, we first tell ourselves that the right moment to relieve our muscles with this practice is just after a good session, according to outdoor fitnessapparatuur.
To be clear, I agree with this absolute rule provided that you focus these stretching exercises on the muscle or muscles that have been the most stressed during the effort. In other words, to be effective, you must, of course, stretch the muscle or muscles that you have worked before.
This precision seems rather simplistic like that, yet I still see far too many people who are content to do the most common stretches regardless of their session. We know the flexed leg, the extended leg or even the splits if you can say, but if you do this after finishing stretching your arms, what interest will you get? A good stretch after training, therefore, necessarily involves targeting the stressed part of the body.
Then, several reasons make stretching necessary after the session. The idea is to relieve as much as possible the muscular tension which is released from your fibers by utilizing soft and flexible movements while facilitating blood circulation towards the damaged part to allow a more critical flow of nutrients. This last point is a significant asset to functional post-training recovery.
To a lesser extent, a good ten minutes of stretching right after your challenging session will help you reduce a bit of stiffness even if it is inevitable after one or two hours of intense exercise. The fight against body aches is, however, the first point put forward by the supporters of stretching when in my opinion, it is not the most telling after the other interests of which I spoke to you above.
Pre-Workout Stretches
Some of you may be starting to be skeptical when reading the opening lines of this paragraph for the simple reason that they never stretch before starting their workouts. Well, from my point of view, this is a mistake!
For my part, I impose myself before each big session in the gym, three or four sets of an exercise with a light load that will target and pre-tire the fibers that I want to work. The idea is to oil my joints well and therefore allow a load of larger fibers later. It is at this precise moment that I also take the opportunity to stretch and lightly massage the muscles and tendons affected by the effort to prepare them for stress and precisely for the more violent stretches that may occur during exercises.
The advantage of this stretching passage before serious things is, therefore, to avoid joint and tendon pain that can happen when we start our movements until the body is warm. It is a way to avoid silly injuries, which can be very disabling for your future progress.
