The importance of stretching

The importance of performing a stretch.

Stretching keeps our muscles flexible, strong and healthy, and we need that flexibility in order to maintain a good range of motion in all our joints. This helps preserve a healthy body and reduce muscular atrophy and bone weakening. Without a good range of motion in the joints, the muscles end up shortening and becoming tight. Which results in a struggle to perform certain movements or activities as the muscles are unable to extend all the way. That puts our bodies at risk for joint pain, strains and muscle damage. 

Why stretching impacts your everyday life

A good example of a day-to-day activity which can cause a lot of strain and muscle tightness is working at a desk all day. This can result in tight hamstrings in the back of the thigh. This can then minimise the ability to extend the leg when walking or straighten the knee all the way. This can also lead to further muscle damage and injury as by repetitively performing activities with a tight muscle can cause a strain.

The effects of stretching

By stretching once a day it won’t magically make your body more flexible. This is an activity that needs to be performed over time and remain committed to the process. A person can simply start by performing the basic static stretches for lower and upper body muscles and slowly work their way. To improve on a stretch one can increase the time they hold onto that stretch for as well as starting to execute more advanced positions which can stretch multiple muscle groups at once. Over time this will benefit highly on the health of our joints and muscles as well as decrease the chance of injuries and as a bonus, make certain movements and activities easier to perform.

We've got a variety of classes which cater to the above and can help you get on the right track, why not get yourself booked on some of our Yoga, Pilates or Ballet Fit classes which will help improve on your flexibility overall and get a good workout in whilst supervised and instructed by our qualified instructors. 

Download our Better UK app to book yourself in!