STRETCHING TIPS
Before you stretch, you are going to want to warm up for about 5 minutes. Why? Because if you stretch when your muscles are cold, your stretching routine won’t be as effective. Five minutes at a moderate pace on a treadmill or stairmaster should be adequate to warm up.
Although there are other types of stretching techniques you can utilize for other purposes, such as sports and ballet training, for the purposes of anti-aging, you will want to do Static Stretching. In static stretching, you extend the muscle gradually through the full range of motion until you feel a comfortable stretch, NOT pain. If you feel pain, a neural message will be sent to the muscle telling it to contract, which will actually tighten the muscle, defeating the purpose of the exercise. Once a comfortable stretch is achieved, it is typically held for 15-30 seconds.
To make the most efficient use of your time, one option is to stretch a specific muscle group after you have done a strength training exercise on it. This also has the added benefit of causing increased bloodflow to the muscle group, which carries away the lactic acid that gets built up during exercise, one of the major causes of soreness from exercise.
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