Stretching exercises are believed to be a “must” in any fitness program. However, these are often neglected and not given that much time and attention. Little do we know that such simple exercises have a big importance to us and to our health! It’s true, and I’m just about to bear it out to you.

Doing stretching exercises before your actual training warms up your whole body and keeps you away from accidents and injuries. They enhance the flexibility of your joint and muscles, allowing you to perform your workout smoothly. As you stretch, your physique becomes a lot more limber, resulting for you to perform a broader range of motion.

After a workout, stretching exercises ease your tight muscles and allows your body to cool down. Do you know that after a workout, your body will be able to extend even further than it did before your actual training program? This will actually result in your body feeling less tortured because it has been moved and pushed into ways it is not used to. However, take note that you must not do post stretching exercises if you strained or sprained a muscle while exercising as this can worsen the injury.

Stretching exercises strengthen and increase the mass of your muscles. This is because the blood circulation all over your body is increased by muscle stretching. When your muscles are receiving a workout, part of your brain obtains a message of muscle tightening from them. Thus, it transmits this message to another area of the brain which is accountable for allowing us to go through physical responses to such messages. From there, you will feel your muscles get tighter.

These are some of the stretching exercises that can also relieve body and muscle stress. Make sure to perform them properly for you to get the results that you desire.

· Hurdler’s Stretches

· Neck Rolls

· Forward Bends

· Quadriceps Stretches

· Spinal Twists

· Abdominal stretches

In Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training, he strongly recommends static stretching exercises for specific body parts as he believes that these will help in transforming us to our dream bodies.

· Psoas Stretch

· Hamstring Stretch

· Glute Stretch

· Quadriceps Stretch

· Chest Stretch

· Shoulder Stretch