Benefits of Stretching

Benefits of Stretching
Benefits of Stretching
By Terry Sandhu

If you want to get fitter, or try to lose some weight, the first point of call is your diet. You decide what you should cut back on and what you should add to your diet to achieve your goals. The second thing that you will probably consider is a good exercise program. In most peoples views a good exercise program will initially consist of some type of cardio exercise. After this some people may try to incorporate some sort of weight training regime.

An essential part of any exercise program is often ignored by most people. This essential part is stretching. Some people may go through the motions with a couple of minutes of stretching before a workout, but most people do not realize the wonderful benefits that stretching can give them. Stretching along with cardio and weight training should be considered as being a vital part of any exercise program.

The first thing to remember is that you should always have a good warm up before stretching. This is because a warm muscle is always going to be more flexible than a cold one, and this will avoid the risk of any injury. The second thing is to make sure that you do not push too far when stretching. Always go to the point where you can feel the pull and not to the point where it becomes painful.

As children we are naturally pretty flexible but this changes as we get older.  Our muscles begin to get tighter and this is why it is so easy to pull a muscle, or often wake up in the mornings feeling sore and stiff if we haven't slept with a good posture. As children the bulk of our world consists of physical play. We run around and move about in ways that stretch our bodies. When we get older all this stops. You rarely hear of children complaining of back pain or pulled hamstrings.

You should have a good stretching program consisting of 10 to 15 minutes. You will get most value from stretching if you do it after your normal workout. The benefits of stretching are many, and here are just a few:

When you exercise you are basically stressing your muscles. It is this stress that is going to make your muscles stronger or give you muscles endurance. Stretching after a workout is going to reduce the stress on your muscles because stretching will allow your blood to reach the stressed muscles more quickly, and it is your blood that carries the nutrients that are going to repair you. You will have less soreness in your muscles the day after a workout, allowing them to recover more quickly.

Stretching will improve your posture. It will make your body feel more comfortable. This will be noticeable in the way you stand and the way you move around. Good posture is extremely important for good physical health. After all it is bad posture that will end up giving you muscular problems in the long term.

Stretching will improve your daily life and allow you to perform tasks with more ease. It helps movement and you can improve everyday things such as bending, leaning, and carrying. How many times have you pulled a muscle or tweaked something after picking something up and ended up holding your back? How many times have you turned or moved suddenly and felt a stab of pain? This is because your muscles are tight and therefore not prepared for the particular movement, and end up being injured. Stretching will reduce the chances of this happening.

In conclusion do not ignore or downplay the importance of stretching. Incorporate stretching into your exercise program and it will give you benefits which will make you physically fitter, help you avoid injuries, and basically increase the quality of your life on a day to day basis. Do not underestimate the great benefits of stretching.

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Benefits of Stretching Exercises & Yoga Poses

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Stretching for Yoga Made Easy

Benefits Of Bikram Yoga Poses
By Rebecca Prescott

Bikram yoga is a type of yoga that is performed using a number of specific poses in a room heated to ninety to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. This form of Yoga is named after its founder, Bikram Choudury, an Indian who spent some time studying with the brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, named Bishnu Ghosh.

This form of yoga, like other types, is designed to unify the mind, body and spirit, as well as to increase levels of flexibility and strength throughout the body. This is a form of exercise that has become more and more popular over the years, with many attracted to the benefits it can bring not only to our muscles, but the nervous, lymphatic, and endocrine systems.

With Bikram Yoga a series of twenty six poses is used, and these are performed in a suitably heated room using the temperatures specified above. Within this school, each of the twenty six poses is performed twice, and held for a specified time period. Amongst the Bikram yoga poses used are standing poses, back bends, forward bends, and twists.

The reason for the room being heated is because these levels of heat have been shown to improve the ability to go safely into the asanas, making the whole experience more comfortable and manageable. Bikram yoga poses can be challenging for some people, but the heat increases flexibility and makes practising these poses and holding them as required easier. People can reach a deeper level of physical practice more quickly.

These levels of heat also increase sweating, and will help you to expel toxins from the body. They also help reduce the risk of injury during practice. The actual Bikram yoga poses themselves are designed to strengthen and stretch both the muscles and the joints, as well as ligaments. It's a style of yoga that is really geared towards providing physical health benefits.

Practising these asanas in the Bikram style can help to increase blood circulation and reduce stress levels, as well as develop muscle tone. Because the standing poses flow together, Bikram practitioners get something of a cardiovascular workout as well, which can help with weight loss.

According to reports, this type of yoga can benefit all sorts of people, including those with illnesses and diseases such as thyroid problems, arthritis, and diabetes. They may even find that regular sessions of Bikram yoga help ease their symptoms. When Choudury was developing his style of yoga, he actually worked with scientists at Tokyo University to establish how different asanas stimulate the glands in the body. They also examined the effect of one pose moving into the next, which is why the order of the poses is considered important in this yoga. Bikram yoga has also been adapted to a practice suitable for pregnant women.

Overall, this is a physically active style of yoga that can be challenging, yet is suitable for people from beginner to experienced. The only caveat is whether you can stand the heat!

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Illustrated Stretching Guide & Yoga Poses