How can stretching help with physical health?

With many people spending time in office-related jobs, stretching, or flexibility training, has become a key component to decreasing muscle imbalances, postural imbalances, joint dysfunctions, and overuse injuries.  These imbalances can often lead to injuries.  Many individuals are effected by poor posture, poor training technique, or previous injury.

Some benefits gained from streching include:

Correcting muscle imbalances

Relieving joint stress

Increasing joint range of motion

Improving function

It is very important to note that poor flexibility, which may be from the lack of stretching incorporated into an exercise routine, may leave an individual more likely to be injured while training, participating in sports, or even in everyday situations like bending over to tie a shoe. 

Stretching will help decrease the risk of injury, and improve the way you move and perform in your daily life. If muscles are excessively tight and shortened, they cannot work properly and will be weak and under perform. In time this will cause the joints of your body not to move properly and this can lead to injury and movement issues. There are several different types of flexibility methods you can use, include static stretching where you hold a stretch for 30 seconds, self myofascial release where you foam roll tight areas for 30 seconds, and active and dynamic stretching where you actively move muscles through a full range of motion.  Using a combination of all these forms of flexibility will help you to get tight and weakened muscles back to a normal length, and will help decrease the risk of injury and improve the way you move, feel and use your muscles.