It’s crucial to your health to maintain your joints mobile within their normal ranges of motion. Full joint mobility is associated with the ability to perform basic motions properly. This may reduce the load on your joints, helping you feel better and performing better in your sport.
Exercise physiologist Polly de Mille from HSS’s Sports Rehabilitation and Performance Center shares some of the methods she recommends most highly for increasing flexibility in the following paragraphs.
Imagine yourself doing so on a bed of foam.
Foam rolling has been shown to increase flexibility in the short term similarly to traditional stretching. Rolling out your thighs with a foam roller, for example, may increase blood flow to your muscles and improve your flexibility. First, repeat the motion three or four times up and down, and then repeat the motion with your leg rocked to the side. The exercise is now over. If you want to learn more about the foam rolling method, this video can help you out. Self-myofascial instruments include not only massage sticks and balls, but also percussion tools. Self-myofascial release may help loosen up tight tissues in as little as a few minutes. To increase flexibility this is important.
Before starting the workout, it’s better to do some dynamic stretching rather than static stretching.
A dynamic stretch involves moving a joint through its complete range of motion in a back-and-forth motion without holding or straining. A excellent dynamic stretch might be 15 leg swings, where you just allow your leg go through its natural range of motion as you swing it back and forth.
Holding a stretch does not exist in dynamic stretching. The purpose of the exercise is not to force the body to the point where it can no longer do the action, but rather to increase the range of motion already there. Some other examples of dynamic stretches that may be used in an effective warm-up are as follows: hip openers, butt kicks, and Frankenstein walks
Static stretching should be performed once exercise is complete.
When your muscles are warm and pliable after a workout, you’ll be able to stretch farther and more comfortably than at any other time. Bring a muscle or a group of muscles to as far of an extension as you can go without feeling pain, and hold that position for at least 20 seconds. Do so anywhere from twice to four times.
Focus on the areas that you think might need some more attention by stretching those muscles and ligaments.
The areas with the most restrictions need your full attention. Generally speaking, the most effective workouts are the ones that push you to your limits. If you have some flexibility in your hamstrings but not your calves or hip flexors, focus your stretching efforts where they are most needed. A person who spends their whole day at a desk may benefit from extending the chest and front of their hips. No effort beyond maintaining your current level of flexibility is warranted if you already have a great deal of mobility in every joint. You may get more out of your workout time if you focused on building up the muscles that stabilise your joints.
