Why stretch?
stretching can help you increase your range of movement, it will help decrease the amount of soreness after you exercise, and most importantly it will help reduce you muscle tension.
Two different types of stretching
1. Dynamic Stretching
Dynamic stretching help prepare the body for whatever activity you will be doing. So you should use dynamic stretches BEFORE a workout. When you do a dynamic stretch you should use a slow and controlled motion, at this point in your warm-up your muscles are still tight and jerking them around could cause an injury.
to see a list of dynamic stretches go to this website
2. Static Stretching
Static stretches should be immediately following a workout. These stretches help cool down the body and will help reduce the soreness from exercising. Static stretches are done without moving and while stretching you should hold a position right before a place of discomfort. If you stretch too far you could cause an injury.
to see a list of static stretches go to this website
Stretching should be an important facet of your training program. A simple stretching program could take as long as ten minutes or if flexibility is something that you would like to work on you could take as long as an hour doing more sets of stretches.
