The Importance Of Touching Your Toes

In a hectic world of family, work, and overall life, many of us find it hard enough to manage our daily lives with enough time left over to pencil in our basic need of exercise. If we are able to get our daily dose of blood pumping, life lengthening fun in, it often occurs as a quick run out the door, a few weighted repetitions in the local gym or an enjoyable trek on our bike. The point being, we head out the door at a rapid pace, and return only to head back into our daily lives. We move from one aspect of our daily checklist to the next. Do we ever really give our muscles a chance to warm up, stretch out and prepare for the activities in which we love to embark? Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint, and if that joint is tight and inflexible, the muscles surrounding the joint tend to not cooperate near as well. Flexibility is one of four components of fitness, and is often the most neglected and the least popular, by far. However, flexibility is often times the most important of the components. Following these basic keys before and after exercising will ultimately increase your flexibility and drastically decrease the possibility of injury.
• Always warm up prior to activity. When cold, inflexible muscles are called upon to work beyond their limit on even the most ordinary activities and therefore increase the likelihood of injury.
• If you are injured or suffer from inflexibility and muscle imbalance you should make sure to stretch following your warm up and prior to activity.
• If you notice a joint or muscle feeling tight during activity it is recommended you stop the activity and properly stretch to make sure the joint is properly prepared for the remainder of the activity. Your body will let you know when something is wrong, stop and listen to avoid injury.
• Always stretch at the end of your exercise session. Muscles shorten and tighten post exercise and a proper stretching routine will help to restore them to a proper length.

Avoid stretching if you experience any of the following:
• Pain beyond a normal stretch.
• Following an injury such as a muscle sprain, strain or bone fracture (You should refer to a physical therapist for instructions on the proper stretches to perform).

So the next time you throw on your favorite workout clothes and head out the door, make sure to pencil in that extra ten minutes to warm up, stretch out and prepare yourself for an injury free experience. n