Do you find time to stretch? If you don’t, you may want to take a few minutes every day to stretch your muscles. How does stretching improve your health? Stretching improves circulation, reduces tension, relieves back and shoulder pain, and it can help to reduce stress.

A lack of flexibility can make it hard to participate in the activities you enjoy in life. John Skowron, a physical therapist at Raleigh Community Sports Medicine stated, “As we get older, our muscles and joints tend to become tighter”.

In the book, “Age Erasers for Women”, the editors of Prevention write that muscles contract or shorten with movement, while opposing muscles relax or lengthen. When muscles and surrounding elastic tissue that need to lengthen are too tight, you lose full range of motion. When muscles are too tight your movement becomes restricted and you become more susceptible to injury.


How to Lengthen Your Muscles

Prevention Editors write that when you stretch a muscle, such as the hamstring (back of your leg) you put tension on it and the muscle begins to lengthen. If the stretch is held long enough a structure located where tendons adjoin the muscles called the Golgi tendon organ, sends a message that triggers the muscle to relax farther and lengthening continues. The best way to stretch is to hold a stretch for 20-30 seconds. Stretching can also improve strength because lengthening the muscle will produce more force.

Before stretching, you should warm up your muscles with a brisk walk. Muscles are less likely to become injured while stretching. When you stretch go slow and don’t bounce. Bouncing can cause tears in the muscle.

The best way to begin stretching is to start doing a few minutes interspersed through out the day. To learn how to do stretches at your office desk, click here.

Stretching reduces stress in several ways

1.Stretching helps you to relax when you hold a stretch and breath deeply, sending more oxygen throughout the body.
2.Stretching loosens up tight muscles. When you are stressed you tend to tighten muscles. Reducing tightness in the muscles will automatically reduce tension.
3.Stretching causes the brain to release endorphins and anti-depressant-like neurotransmitters, which brings stress relief.

For more on how stretching reduces stress, click here.

Check out
Stretching, 20th Anniversary Revised Edition

Here’s a video on 6 stretches you can do to improve your flexibility.

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