Best Fitness Blog

... By Karli Taylor

Stand up. Take a deep breath in. Exhale and bend over and touch your toes. Can’t reach? That could lead to big problems in the not so distant future. What’s the big deal about being able to fold yourself in half?

Being able to touch your toes is a quick way to assess the flexibility in the muscles surrounding your ankle, hip and knee joints in addition to muscles around your spine.

Having limited flexibility in these areas can cause aggravating joint pain and eventual injury. So what can you do? By focusing on the following stretches done AFTER your normal workouts, you will get you nose closer to your knees in no time!

Calf Stretch: Stand with your palms against a wall with your arms extended at chest height. Take an exaggerated step back with your left foot and bring your heel down to the floor (or as close as you can get). Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Stay in the same position and bend your left knee slightly. Hold that stretch for 30 seconds before switching feet.

Hamstring Stretch: Lying flat on your back, lift your left leg off of the ground. Lift it as high as you can without allowing your bottom to lift up off of the floor. Clasp your hands behind your thight or your calf and pull your leg toward your chest. Focus on keeping your leg as straight as possible. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds before switching sides.

Hip-flexor Stretch: Stand with feet together. Take a large step forward with your left leg and drop your right knee down to the ground. Keeping your chest lifted, lean toward the front knee. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds then switch sides.

... by Karli Taylor

Let's talk about stretching. Why do we stretch? Some people think that it will prevent injury. Some people think it will prevent soreness. What if I were to tell you that the only thing stretching does is make you more flexible? Yup- that's it. So if you participate in a sport that requires flexibility- like gymnastics or even golf, then stretching will help your performance. But runners, skiers, baseball players- unless you are tight or imbalanced, stretching will not help your game.

Now Stretching does have its place- I don't want to be known as the anti-stretch trainer. If you are recovering from an injury, you should surely stretch. Why? Put simply, a healing muscle tends to be tighter than a normally functioning muscle, and like I mentioned earlier, if you are tight- STRETCH!

But when should you stretch? Every time I go to a race or a sporting event I see people lined up before the start stretching. I want to grab a microphone and scream at everyone! Stretching before an event will make you weaker. It will loosen up a muscle that is about to produce power- not a good thing. Think about a rubber band. When will a rubber band give the hardest snap back? When it is new or when it has been stretched out a few times? Make sense?

Before any event, warm up by moving dynamically. A dynamic warm-up is not a mile jog or walking a bit before the start. It consists of a series of exaggerated motions that take all of the joints about to be used through their full range of motion. Unlike stretching, dynamic warm ups do not require that you hold any one position for more than a second or two. For example, before a run take 10 or 15 steps each time lifting one knee up and pulling it into your chest. Turn around and walk back kicking your straight leg out in front of you each step. Follow that up by walking with a butt kick. Doing these 3 simple warm-up drills will prepare your body for the stress of hip flexion, knee flexion, hip extension and knee extension- the primary joint actions used while running or walking!

Static stretching, or holding a stretch for 30 seconds, comes after you run or work out. Can you ever stretch during a workout? Again, if something becomes very tight- go for it. Or, in the case of weight lifting, stretching the opposing muscle to that which you are training will actually make you stronger! Try it if you don't believe me. The next time you are weight training, stretch your biceps in between sets of a tricep exercise, or your quads in between sets of a hamstring exercise. Let me know what happens!