Mr Salus Sporting LabWhy and when do we need to stretch?
- mrsalus2021
- February 18, 2021
- 5:16 pm
- 2 Comments
When do we have to stretch our muscles?
There is a widespread misconception of when and why to stretch our muscles.
Many clients told me that they do not stretch their muscles before running because they think It could be dangerous to stretch “cold muscles”.
This is a big misconception about muscle stretching for many reasons:
- Running is a more stressful exercise than stretching.
- Running overloads immediately tendons, muscles, and joints.
- Running stresses immediately the Golgi Tendon Organ ( GTO ) which is a proprioceptive sensory organ that senses changes in the muscle tension.
Instead, I strongly advise stretching before and after running or whatever kind of workout.
Why do we have to do stretching?
Stretching is very important for our musculoskeletal system for many reasons that include:
- Stretching is useful to warm your muscle up.
- Stretching increases local blood perfusion.
- Stretching at the beginning of the activity produces a mild and less stressful activation of the GTO and Stretch Receptors of the musculoskeletal system.
- Stretching does not produce excessive stress on muscles, joints, or tendons at the beginning of physical exercise.
- Stretching increase the flexibility of your muscles and related joints.
- Stretching improve the range of motion of your joints.
- Stretching can reduce muscle tension from previous workouts.
Can stretching improve sports performance?
I consider stretching e real workout of your muscle’s flexibility and It has the same importance as your Muscle Power.
When you stretch your muscles it is like they are getting a light sports massage because stretching the muscle fibers has the ability to reduce muscle tension too.
The balance between muscle power and muscle flexibility is a key factor for better sports performance and muscle biomechanics.
Even if you have good muscle power but poor muscle flexibility, you can get a lot of injuries such as muscle strain, muscle sprain, and muscle tears.
Executing the stretching is very important to the correct body posture of each exercise and one of the easiest solutions is to get a good Visual Stretching Guide.
By improving your muscle flexibility you are going to get many benefits:
- Higher sports performance.
- Fewer chances of muscle injuries.
- More range of motion of the joints.
- Higher mobility of the entire body.
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