Why Stretching Is Important

Himanshu Gahlawat
8 min readMay 23, 2021

Why Stretching Is Important | Benefits Of Stretching

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We have been doing stretching since P.E class in school and even before any activity we tend to stretch our body naturally but do you know exactly why stretching is important chances are you don’t know why stretching is important.

Well you know stretching is beneficial to our body as pre-workout and post-workout stretching but there are many other benefits of stretching which we will share with you today.

Stretching can benefit you in many ways from better mobility to better posture which we will discuss in this article. But you don’t know how to do stretching or when to do stretching don’t worry we got you covered we will cover everything in this article.

So here are the topics we will cover in this article

  • How Stretching Works
  • Why Stretching is Important
  • Benefits of Stretching
  • How to get started with Stretching
  • FAQ about Stretching

So you excited to learn more about Stretching let’s dive in

Why Stretching is Important and How Stretching works

Before understanding why Stretching is Important let us understand how stretching works and how stretching affects our body.

Our body uses around 600 muscles to keep us moving to perform our daily tasks. So it is necessary that we take care of these muscles and provide them with the care that they need.

Stretching makes our muscles flexible and strong thus improving our range of motion. If our muscles are tight or not flexible enough then it can affect our range of motion and can even lead to the danger of muscle damage and strains.

Even according to Wikipedia stretching is a form of exercise in which a particular muscle is stretched or flexed to improve the flexibility of our muscle to achieve better muscle tone.

Importance of Stretching can be understood from this point that some gymnast tends to stretch at least one hour a day. So many bodybuilders and athletes too spend a lot of time stretching before and after their workout.

To exactly understand the importance of stretching look at it this way you must have seen people with frozen shoulders unable to raise their hands overhead completely straight well if you did stretching regularly you will never encounter any issue like that.

Stretching as little as 20 minutes a day,3 times a week can make major changes to your body, it doesn’t make to-do stretching compared with the benefits it provides to us so let us now discuss the benefits of stretching.

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What are the Benefits of Stretching

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Compared to how easy and low impact stretching sessions is usually with the benefits of stretching are is not fair because stretching is a low impact exercise and the benefits of stretching can be lifelong so let us discuss some of the benefits of stretching

Improved Flexibility and Mobility

Doing stretching on regular basis is great for body posture and surely does wonders for our mobility.

By doing certain stretches poses we stretch and flex certain different muscles in our body we improve the elasticity of our muscles which makes our muscles more flexible and that directly helps us with better mobility.

On the other hand, if our body is not flexible enough then pushing our muscles beyond their limits can lead to a painful injury because our muscles are usually stiff and tight and any random movement which stretches our muscles over the limit can cause a strain or muscle tear.

So it is better to do stretching sometimes.

Better Range of Motion

Another benefit of stretching daily is that it can help you improve your range of motion.

If your body has a perfect range of motion then it will be good for you in many ways such as it can help you perform better in a sport or in a gym or even in bed.

So as already discussed above stretching is good for mobility and flexibility and if your body has good mobility and flexibility it will automatically have a better range of motion.

The benefits of a better range of motion are great, suppose you have a problem while walking because one of your legs some muscle is tight and when you walk in slightly feels tight or might even cause pain but when this problem is gone you will have a problem walking you won’t even feel there was some problem so that is a good range of motion for you.

Helps avoid injury

You already know this, don’t you?

It is one of the most common and most popular benefits of stretching. It helps you avoid injury in two different ways one while working out and another in day-to-day life.

Let us understand it this way you stretch before your workout so it gets the blood flowing to your muscles and warms up your muscles so when you lift heavy weights your muscle is ready for that stress and helps you avoid injury, also stretching post-workout cools down your muscle for better recovery too.

Another way it helps avoid injury in your day-to-day works life you need to lift something up if you need to run for something, so you already have good posture and mobility because for regular stretching so there will be fewer chances of injury according to your fitness level.

Better Muscle to Mind connection

Stretching can be good for you to help you make better mind to muscle connections.

Those who workout they already know how much beneficial it can be. When you stretch before workout it warms up your muscle by improving your blood flow there so while working out you can directly focus better on your particular training muscle due to improved muscle to kind connection.

Better and faster muscle development

Stretching before a workout and after a workout can even lead to a better quality of muscle development and can even lead to faster muscle development.

First of all, because better muscle to mind connection will improve your workouts which will help with better muscle growth.

Another thing is that when you perform cool-down stretching after a workout it helps to relax your muscles which helps our muscles to recover better and faster resulting in faster muscle development.

Boosts Energy and performance

Stretching before a workout can boost your energy in the gym. It can also boost your performance like stretching before a run to help you run longer and faster.

As we know stretching improves our flood blow to but it also improves the flow of oxygen in our body and this circulation to our soft tissue cells can result in a natural increase of energy throughout the day in our body.

It makes you feel good

This is one of the most wonderful benefits of stretching, it make you feel good after a good stretching session in the early morning it can make you feel good and highly energetic the whole day.

Take it this way whenever you go on a long ride in your car or in anything and when after long hours of traveling you finally get off, your instincts automatically makes you stretch your body and see how good it feels, imagine if that feels so how great you will feel if you do this every day.

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How to get started with stretching

So know you are convinced that stretching is really great for you and you do want to start stretching but you don’t know how to get started with stretching and when you should do stretching.

Don’t we will help you out with that too. Although there is no particular time or schedule fixed to do stretching you should do it according to your convenience but here are three convenient times for stretching

Daily Morning Stretching

Stretching your body daily early in the morning can be a great workout for you.

Stretching in the morning can be good for you as it helps to relieve tension or pain from sleeping the night before. Morning stretches helps you get prepared for the day and get your blood flow going for the rest of the day.

It will help you burn some calories too and one of the best things about morning stretches is that they will give you energy for the whole day and it will also make you feel good.

Although there are thousands of morning stretches you can find online according to your fitness level but here is one simple morning routine to help you get started and get going

Before Bed Stretching

As morning stretching has some potential benefits so does stretching before bed.

If you have been working the whole day you might be tired and carrying that muscle tension the whole day than a 10 minutes stretch before bed can help you relieve tension and relieve stress from your body.

Stretching before bed can make your body feel calm and relaxed and help you sleep better. If you sleepless night before bed stretching can be a good thing for you.

Stretching before and after a workout

Stretching before and after a workout is also very important as they are very good for muscle growth and injury prevention.

Stretching before a workout helps to improve muscle flow and have a better muscle to mind connection which will help us target the muscle’s growth more.

Post-workout stretches have their own benefits and are very important too. Post-workout stretches can help us relax our muscles and body better after an intense workout session. Also, post-workout helps us save from muscle fatigue as well as help us with better recovery.

FAQ on stretching

So after discussing stretching details you guys must be having some questions in your mind so let us know to answer some of the most common FAQs related to Stretching.

Q 1.Does stretching really help?

Yes, stretching really helps. Stretching regularly can help you in so many ways.
Stretching can help you with a number of problems. Stretching is so good for the body that a lot of international athletes include it in their routines too.

Q 2.What stretching does to your body?

Stretching helps improve to improve mobility, better our posture and it also helps release tension from our body.
Stretching can also helps us tightness in muscles.

Q 3. Is it OK to stretch every day?

yes, it is okay to stretch every day, stretching every day will make you feel good and improve blood circulation in your body, and also obviously it will also help you improve your body physically.

Conclusion

Stretching is really good for our body with so low impact exercise and so many benefits everyone should do stretching and avail the benefits of stretching.

After this article, there is no question why stretching is important. You should probably try stretching for 2 weeks and see the difference you see in your body.

Also, what is your take from this article about stretching do let us know and do share with might get some benefit from stretching?

Originally posted on Simplebodyfitness.com

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Himanshu Gahlawat

Fitness Enthusiast | Content Creator | Learning something new everyday