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Your Health to the Max

Stretching is not just for athletes.  No matter what your lifestyle, the proper flexibility training regimen will help to boost your well-being.  By maintaining or increasing muscular flexibility through stretching, we can ensure that the range of motion within our skeletal system will be protected.  Maintaining the appropriate range of motion helps to protect the integrity of the joints throughout the body.  Lack of flexibility (range of motion) inhibits joints from moving properly leading to aches, pain, and in some cases severe pain.  Check out the following facts about stretching and you’ll be thinking twice about whether or not your flexibility program is up to par.

·  Stretching helps control muscular tension and joint stress due to maintaining static positions for long periods of time.  Things such as typing for three hours or standing for a few hours on a hard surface.

· Reduction of muscular tightness in key areas will help improve your posture.

·Those who are more flexible reduce their risk of injury through more efficient movement and increased performance during activity.

· Flexibility helps make strength training workouts more effective by allowing one to work the muscles through a fuller range of motion, thereby recruiting a higher percentage of the muscle fibers.

· Stretching helps to control post workout soreness.

· More intense forms of flexibility training such as Yoga will help to control stress, gain strength, and maintain bone density.

All muscles of the human body can benefit from the proper stretching techniques.  Depending on your daily activities, you may be in need of some stretches more than others.  For example a person who spends most of their day on the computer will probably feel much better if he/she begins a stretching program including a good dose of cervical, thoracic, and wrist stretches.

Stretches are ideally held in static positions (NO BOUNCING) for a minimum of fifteen seconds each stretch.  Stretching can be done several times daily, as needed.  Stretching is the most effective after a good aerobic warm-up, but don’t skip it if you don’t have the opportunity to warm-up first.

Flexibility training is an important and effective part of any well-rounded health and fitness program.  By spending only a moderate amount of time on stretching, you’ll find that the benefit is well worth it.

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