We've all been guilty of it, pumping out a great workout, feeling fantastic (or ruined - depends on the goal), race straight to the showers, straight to work and SIT on our butts all day!
Then two days later wonder "damn I feel ridiculously sore from that workout and my muscles are stupidly tight….better not go to the gym."
Stretching is often the most important part of a workout. That’s not a typo, it really is vital to
maintaining an injury free and results driven performance program, whether
you’re trying to lose weight, gain muscle or just overall fitness. Not stretching can lead to increased pain after a workout, making us not want to workout again, and losing our consistent workout streak.
A good stretching programme after your workout can make all the difference!
However, paying a personal trainer to get you to stretch for a
decent amount of time can often cut into your actual workout time, or drive the session time (and the $$) way up.
Stretching isn’t hard, but you do have to be smart about it.
Here’s some equipment you will need:
A mat (chances are your butt is sore enough from all the lunging
you just did, am I right?)
A stretchy rubber strap (you can get them for less than $10 from
Rebel or your local physio) or just use a skipping rope
A towel
A foam roller (these will usually be in the
dumbbell/kettlebell/swissball area of the gym) otherwise you can pick them up
from Rebel, a physiotherapist or even Clark Rubber (cheap and nasty but gets
the job done)
The main spots most of us need to stretch are:
pecs (chest), quads (front of thighs), hams (back of thighs), glutes (bum) and back….
Pecs (minor – the ones directly in front of your armpit and
towards your midline and major – from below your collarbone to your sternum,
across your nipples and down to the bottom of your chest)
· Vital for pulling our shoulders back and
keeping that great posture you’ve worked so hard for.
· Especially important for guys after chest
day, nobody wants that gorilla back!
Pecs stretch
This one is great for your pec minor, to relieve tightness and pulling your shoulders back…
walk into a corner of a room and face it. Put your arms on either side and "push" your way out.
Here's some more stretches...
This works well when done behind your back as well.
Glutes and
hip flexors
These are your butt muscles (glutes) and your hip flexors are in
the front directly in front of your hip (these are in the crease of our hip if
we sit down)
The issue is with most of our lifestyles, we sit all day in some
degree
· Sit in the car or the train on the way to
work
· Sit at our desks
· Sit at lunch
· Sit on the loo
You get the
gist…
As a result our bodies are constantly in “triple flexion”, and we
also lean and reach forward = bad
posture!
This gives us tight hip flexors (bad) and weak ass glutes! (really
bad!) leading to…
·
- Bad posture
- Lower back pain
- Upper back pain
- Weak core
- Increased injuries
- Weight gain
- A flat bum
No wonder sitting is the new smoking!
Quads (front
of your thighs) and hamstrings (back of your thighs)
These BIG muscle groups are vital to stretch as it decrease
soreness and increases mobility and range of motion through our knees and hips
as your quads and hamstrings directly influence these joints.
Plus stretching both with a towel or skipping rope and rolling it
out with a foam roller, ensure the muscle stays long and supple and not tight
and short (ah leg day, day after 3cm long hamstrings!).
Here’s some great moves to get these muscles groups stretched out:
And finally…..
A word on foam rolling (or Self-myofascial release if you want to get fancy)
·
Always roll towards the heart (you can crush
little tiny blood vessels if you roll back and forth, creating blood pooling =
more pain and inflammation the next day!)
· Never roll over joints – just don’t. That is
all.
·
You are going to roll over tight spots that
damn near bring tears to your eyes. Stop on that spot and hold it. And cry if
you need to. But hold it anyway, at least for 20-30 seconds
If you want a run down about some particular stretches or foam
rolling techniques, feel free to come and ask in the gym or contact me for a
session that’s specific to you and your needs!
And an article via The Artof Manliness, with lots of pictures for pretty much every foam rolling
exercise you haven’t thought of!
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