Stretching : Something You Should Do Every Day
It has been shown that in order to prevent certain types of strain or injury, you should stretch every day. Additionally, various studies has shown that daily stretching increases overall performance as well. Stretching, therefore, is something that you should do every day.
On a daily basis, we are in almost constant motion. Most of these motions are highly repetitive and this can lead to our muscles tightening up, causing repetitive strain injuries.
“An injury that occurs due to recurrent overuse or improper use.”
Repetitive strain injury can happen as a result of various actions. This includes sleeping poorly, leading us to wake up stiff and with tight muscles. Luckily, this can be prevented by taking part in daily stretches. Stretching improves your core strength and your balance and is really good for your entire body. Best of all, it is very easy.
Why You Should Stretch
The main goal of stretching is to increase our physical flexibility.
“Flexibility is needed to perform everyday activities with relative ease. To get out of bed, lift children, or sweep the floor, we need flexibility. Flexibility tends to deteriorate with age, often due to a sedentary lifestyle. Without adequate flexibility, daily activities become more difficult to perform.”
Thanks to stretching, you can reduce the effects of repetitive strain injury. If you work at a computer, for instance, failing to stretch could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. If your posture is wrong, you could develop chronic back pain. You can develop tennis elbow and various other physical problems. By stretching, you stop your nerves from firing painful messages and leading to muscle spasms and cramps, thereby relaxing the muscles.
Additionally, when you stretch regularly, you also help your joints. Every joint is able to move to a certain degree, which is described by the range of motions. Our knee, for instance, can bend backwards to a certain degree, whereas our hips can turn in various directions. What stretching does is allow us to have optimal range of movement, stopping our joints from seizing up and getting stiff.
Then, there is the fact that you can prevent injuries by stretching every day. So long as we have flexible and limber movements in our joints and muscles, we are more coordinated and balanced. Additionally, it allows our tendons to remain elastic, so that we don’t end up having tendonitis or other inflammation.
Furthermore, by stretching, you can address muscle imbalance. These imbalances are present in almost every person, simply because we do not stretch enough and don’t work on our posture sufficiently. This can lead to significant injury.
Finally, by stretching, you can reduce and relieve stress.
“Stretching, according to the Mayo Clinic, increases blood flow to the muscle and aids circulation.”
Clearly, stretching is hugely important and something that we shouldn’t do occasionally, but rather each and every day. Luckily, it is very easy to do and doesn’t take long either. Look up some gentle stretching exercises each day and start reaping the benefits for your mind, body and soul.