As Australians, we know and understand the importance that exercise has in our lives every single day. We get advice on this very thing every single day from our medical practitioners who encourage us to try to squeeze in at least 30 minutes of intense exercise for at least five days a week. We live such busy lives nowadays and it can be difficult to find the time to exercise but it is incredibly important to do so. One other aspect of exercising that many people overlook is stretching before you do any activity and immediately afterwards as well.
People completely overlook the importance of stretching because it can help to improve your range of motion and reduce the chances of you experiencing an injury which will probably set you back many months on your new road to fitness. You can always turn to Instinct Health to point you in the right direction when it comes to the kinds of activities that you should be doing and the assistance that can be provided for you in the event that you do experience an injury or you are recovering from some kind of medical procedure.
It is crucial that you keep yourself flexible and especially so as you move into your retirement years and so the following are just some of the benefits of stretching and making sure that you retain your flexibility.
- It improves your overall performance – if it is your wish to get yourself into shape here in Australia and to shed that excess weight that you have been carrying around for a few years now then you need better flexibility so that you can work out harder and for longer. The more exercise that you can do in any 30 minutes or more allows you to burn a lot more calories and this leads to fat burning.
- It reduces your risk of injury – you want to try to avoid injury at all times because even the smallest twinge can set you back weeks if not months. If you carry out a proper stretching procedure and you get help from a professional provider as well then you dramatically reduce your chances of experiencing an injury.
- You have full range of motion – it is so important that your joints are able to move freely and easily and depending on the type of activity that you want to do to get yourself fit and into shape, it becomes even more important. You want to improve your ability to do your daily exercise activities and not to hinder them. Stretching also helps to increase blood flow to your muscles and that means that they work much more effectively.
The thing to remember here is that you shouldn’t look at stretching as a warm-up so make sure that you do some on-the-spot running or some light walking for at least 10 minutes before you begin to stretch. Try to concentrate on the major muscle groups in your body and stretch both sides even though one may feel better than the other.