Surely you are an athletic person and therefore, you are a person who needs to stretch and know how to stretch well.
A stretch is a type of exercise in which we try to leave the muscle relaxed and stretched. Stretching is the opposite of contraction so it’s good when the muscle is too tight.
One of the best known advices from coaches and physical trainers is that we should stretch after training. This has two key functions in our human body, which must be explained in order to understand stretching.
First of all, we are going to cool down the muscle, which is hot after exercising, thus avoiding injuries. Second, we are going to relax the muscular fasciae, which are stiff, making them not hurt the next day and thus favoring the supply of oxygen to the muscle, necessary to improve muscle performance.
Stretching is good at the end of any sport, whether it be sports related to bodybuilding and weight training, or sports more related to physical performance such as athletics or cycling.
In both types of sports (anaerobic and aerobic), the muscle needs to be stretched last, to promote muscle recovery and loosen the muscle.
The bad thing is that many people do not know how to stretch correctly, there are even people who never stretch (no wonder they have so many injuries later).
For this reason we are here, to teach you a little about how to stretch and how to stretch, so that when you finish any type of exercise, you can once again be in an optimal muscular state, with good oxygen circulation and good muscular performance.
I bring you 4 stretches, one for each part of the body, choosing the parts of the body that are most easily seized, in order to correct all the most common problems more easily.
Instructions for stretching
- Stretching the femora’s:
The first muscle that we are going to stretch in this little tutorial is the biceps femora’s. The biceps femora’s is a muscle located on the back of the leg, just behind the quadriceps, and is a muscle that seizes a lot during exercises such as squats, running, and other exercises such as sprints. The way to stretch it is simple, we are going to stand with our legs stretched out facing the ground and we are going to try to reach the ground with the tips of our hands, without bending our knees. It does not matter if you do not reach the ground, the key is to feel how the muscle stretches, so do not worry about the issue of flexibility, since this is not our goal today. - Stretching the back and pecks:
Now it’s the turn of the back and pecks, very used muscles located in the torso part of the human body, which seize up a lot in bodybuilding(it’s for you, those of you who only train chest in the gym). To stretch the chest, we are going to grab a surface with our arm outstretched facing outwards and we are going to pull clockwise if we want to stretch the left pectoral and counterclockwise if we want to stretch the right pectoral. For the back, we are going to hang from some surface, as if we were going to do pull-ups, although without doing them. The body weight will stretch the back and you will notice how it creaks. - Stretching the calf:
The calf is a muscle located below the biceps femora’s, which is made up mostly of slow fibers and is used a lot when running. When we run, the calf is loaded a lot, which is why you should always try to stretch after exercising. We are going to stand in front of a wall that has nothing on it and stand with one leg forward. Now we are going to rest the fingers of the front leg on the wall. Now we are going to go forward, without moving the legs, only the torso. We must notice how the calf pulls us so that it is correct. Now we must stretch the opposite twin, to avoid asymmetry. - Stretch the quadriceps:
Finally we are going to stretch the quadriceps, a part of the body located in the upper part of the leg and that is very susceptible to being damaged in some occasions of very strong exercises. The way to stretch them is to sit with your legs stretched out and then try to touch the tips of your feet with your hands without bending your knees. This way we are also going to stretch other parts such as the biceps femora’s and the gluteus, as well as the arms. Try to vary the exercise, trying to move from one leg to another so that the exercise is more entertaining and something different. You can also try opening your legs and trying to go towards them, or contracting one leg and only going towards one leg. In short, try to vary this exercise to make it more intuitive and don’t be afraid to try to play a little more each day.
