The Real Benefits Of Stretching
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Stretching encompasses a lot of areas. You have the occasional stretch when you’re tired, stretching in bed when you first awaken, and stretching routines to build flexibility. There are benefits for all types of stretching. If you stretch because you’re tired or first awakened, it’s usually accompanied by a yawn. The process is called pandiculating. The yawn increases the oxygen supply, and the stretch warms the muscles to prepare them for use. Warm-up and cool-down exercises use stretches to warm and protect the muscles.
Not all stretches are alike.
While there are many types of stretches, the two most often used are dynamic and static stretches. Dynamic stretching involves actively moving the muscles you’ll use during exercise. They increase circulation in the muscles you’ll use during exercise and are warm-up exercises. They also increase the heart rate slowly, so it’s not an abrupt transition. Static stretching includes things like touching your toes. You perform them after you workout, when the muscles are warmed and loose. That allows you to increase your range of motion and slow your heart rate so the blood doesn’t pool in the extremities.
Stretching helps reduce pain as it improves your posture.
Some ailments occur due to poor posture. When you have bad posture, you overwork your muscles. You’re also crowding internal organs. It can lead to back and neck pain and aggravate breathing issues. Poor posture can lead to constipation, bladder incontinence, and digestive problems like heartburn by putting pressure on those organs. It also leads to headaches and poor balance. Stretching helps improve posture to reduce or eliminate these conditions.
You’ll prevent injuries and reduce post-exercise muscle soreness.
Stretching warms the muscles and prepares them to do difficult tasks. It improves the range of motion and flexibility. It helps reduce lactic acid build-up after an intense workout. Increased lactic acid causes muscles to hurt. Stretching after exercise helps remove the acid and the potential for pain. It can improve balance to reduce the potential for falls. It helps you do daily tasks with a reduced risk of injury due to the increased range of motion.
- Improved posture from stretching may affect your mood and boost your self-confidence. You’ll look more confident, so people treat you as though you are. It has the Pygmalion effect.
- Mile exercises like stretching can improve heart health. Doing it before exercise slowly raises the heart rate and reduces the blood pressure spike that would occur if you didn’t stretch.
- Mild stretching is a good recovery workout. It gently increases circulation to send nutrients and oxygen to sore muscles. It helps relax tight muscles because it acts like an internal massage.
- Stretching can build core strength. Frequent stretching can help if you want a flat abdomen. It can boost your energy and align your body so it doesn’t have to work as hard throughout the day.
For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness
Group fitness classes can provide many benefits. One of the most obvious is that it’s more fun than working out alone. You have the enthusiasm of the group to help drive you onward. You also have people to commiserate with when the workout is difficult. The comradery makes your workout more fun, so it’s easier to stick with it. It also improves your social life. Studies show that people with an active social life live longer.
If you live in Houston, TX, and focus on good health, you will probably set fitness goals. Are they realistic? If they’re not within reason, achieving them will be impossible. If you’re an adult who is 5’3″ and set a fitness goal of becoming 6’4″ with stretching exercises, your goal wouldn’t be achievable. If your goal is to lose 200 pounds and you want to do it in two months, it’s also impossible to do with diet and exercise. You set yourself up for failure in both of those cases.
It can be pretty exasperating if you’ve lost weight but still see the identifying bumps and lumps of cellulite. It is fatty tissue, but it’s not always caused by being fat. Some people focus on spot exercises to eliminate the cellulite. It does make the cellulite less noticeable, but it’s still there. Changing your diet can help, but cellulite often occurs due to genetics, hormonal imbalances, lack of muscle tone, and a thinner outer skin layer. You may not completely be able to remove it, but you can make it less noticeable.
Many people in Houston, TX focus on ways to avoid illness rather than spending the time and money at the doctor’s and pharmacy. It means doing the things necessary to stay healthy. No matter how much you do, sometimes you will get ill. It might be a genetic issue, environmental issues, or a virus you were exposed to when your defenses were down. You can’t control everything, but if you get sick, your body will be more prepared for battle, so you’ll start with an advantage.
There have been a lot of advancements in mental health. At one time, people with mental issues who acted out were considered possessed. People with depression were often shunned and called lazy, selfish, or over-reacting. Today, we know mental health issues are real. There are therapists, drugs, and adjunct therapies to help. Many therapists now prescribe exercise as an adjunct therapy to help lift depression. It works better than many prescription drugs. Here are a few of the best workouts.
Weight loss in Houston, TX can be easier when you use indoor fitness routines that burn calories and boost your metabolism. When you increase the calories you burn, it makes weight loss easier. Some cardiovascular exercises like running burn lots of calories while doing them. However, those calories come from burning both fat and muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to lose weight. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain, so the more muscle you lose, the slower your metabolism becomes.
People who exercise with me at RC Fitness in Houston, TX, whether online or in person, understand how important physical activity is. That’s why they stick with a regular exercise program. They know they need all types of fitness, which include flexibility, endurance, strength, and balance. They use our guided program. Exercise does more than help you look fabulous. It has enormous health benefits that make you live longer and improve the quality of life.
Not everyone eats breakfast. Some people don’t care for it and prefer to start eating later. Others find it too time-consuming and impossible to fit into their schedule. Some people substitute a healthy breakfast with a donut and coffee. That’s not the fuel of champions. You need nutritious food that keeps your energy high without peaks and valleys. There are easy breakfasts that are lower in calories and high in nutrition. You can make some dishes the night before and reheat them in the microwave in the morning.
Some people in Houston, TX think that starving yourself is the only way to attain weight loss. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you try to exist on a diet that’s too low in calories, the body attempts to conserve energy to ensure enough for vital functions. It slows metabolism and makes loss harder. The key to losing weight is adequate nutrition. Many foods can satisfy your hunger, keep you feeling full, and boost your metabolism, so weight loss is easier.