photo courtesy of pixabay
Benefits of Stretching
Can you touch your toes? Go ahead, try it now. See if you can touch your toes.
If you can, that’s fantastic—good for you. If you’re like the majority of us who can’t, don’t fret.
Degrees of flexibility vary widely among people and even among different muscles and joints. Everyone’s flexibility is different.
The more frequently and regularly you stretch, the more flexible you’ll become.
Strength and endurance exercises tend to shorten our muscles and reduce elasticity. In order to improve flexibility, we need to incorporate slow, gentle stretching exercises into our daily routine. And it’s important to work at improving it. Like many things you must use it or lose it.
Stretching provides relief from muscle tension and stiffness, improves muscle imbalances, and decreases your risk of injury. Keeping flexible helps with quality of life. Just think about simple things like getting in and out of your car, carrying and putting away groceries, or tying your shoes.
And did you know that stretching benefits your mind as well as your body? When done in a slow and focused manner, stretching can be an excellent way to melt tension and reduce stress.
The more frequently and regularly you stretch, the more flexible you’ll remain as you age. Once you get into the habit of regularly stretching and start noticing progress, you’ll be more motivated to continue.
I challenge you to work on your flexibility and touch your toes by this time next year.