Integrating stretching activity into your daily routine will help lengthen tight muscles and prevent injuries. During the eight hour workday your muscles can become tight and stiff, especially if your job requires sitting at a desk, thus making stretch exercises even more important.
Stretching exercises to start your day
Stretching first thing in the morning is a good way to wake up tired muscles. Start your morning with these five easy stretching exercises:
Exercise 1
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- Sit on the edge of your bed with your feet on the floor
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- Bend over, reaching your hands toward your feet
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- Arch your back
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- Hold for a count of 10
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- Repeat 5 more times.
Exercise 2
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- Remain seated on the edge of your bed with your feet on the floor
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- Rotate your neck in a circle, touching your ears to your shoulders
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- Rotate slowly in a clockwise direction 5 times
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- Rotate slowly in a counter clockwise direction 5 times.
Exercise 3
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- Remain seated on the edge of your bed with your feet on the floor
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- Shrug your shoulders up to your ears
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- Repeat 10 more times.
Exercise 4
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- Stand next to your bed
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- Lace your fingers together
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- Raise your hands above your head, palms upward
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- Lift up stretching your rib cage
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- Hold for a count of 10
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- Repeat 5 more times.
Exercise 5
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- Remain standing next to your bed
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- Bend over and touch your fingers to your toes while keeping your knees straight
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- Hold for a count of 10
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- Repeat 5 more times.
You are now warmed up and ready to start your day! These exercises can be performed daily to increase your range of motion.
Stretching exercises while training
It is also important to stretch before, during and after exercising. Stretches is much more than bending and moving around.
The benefits of stretching exercises are as follows:
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- Maintain the suppleness of muscles, thus avoiding injuries
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- Increase range of motion allowing you to train harder
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- Improve flexibility, joint mobility and range of motion
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- Remove waste products from blood and therefore are vital during workouts in between sets of exercises
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- Improve blood circulation and posture.
When to stretch
Stretch before your workout for three to five minutes, again for three to five minutes after the workout and stretch the muscle group you are exercising in between sets of exercises. They are called warm-up stretches and cool-down stretches respectively.
Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day if you want to know more about stretching exercises.
Sources:
http://physicaltherapy.about.com
http://www.exercisegoals.com