Conditioning with flexibility

The best way to get noticed in a health & fitness article is to proclaim “how to get a six pack in 30 days”, now this is terrific for getting noticed and pulling lots of eyeballs to your story, but I like to instead give you some honest advice on what works to enable to get yourself and your body into a condition you’re happy with.

Whatever you are, Gay, bisexual, straight – staying fit and healthy is now a big part of most peoples lives. Some people choose it, others are forced to do it for health reasons and many do it to keep themselves in shape so they look and feel their best.

Something that everyone can achieve with a minimal amount of time is ‘flexibility’. Improving your flexibility and mobility will firstly decrease the chance of injury but being more flexible can also enable you to use correct technique on exercises such as a ‘Squats’ or a ‘Lunges’.

Static stretching is used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest. Athletes use static stretching so they can recover properly from training. Static stretching can prevent muscle soreness and elongate the muscle tissue to improve the range of movement.

Now I know what you’re staying, I dont need to stretch, I never get sore or get injured. Well, that may be the case but I assure you if you plan stretching into any exercise routine it will make a massive difference to how you train and better still how you feel.

Some basic things to follow:

• Allow yourself as little as 10 minutes or as much as 30 minutes per day to stretch.
• You can stretch anywhere at anytime. I like to stretch in the lounge while watching tv or in a park on a sunny day.
• I like to start with the glute stretch because I find it helps me stretch further and more efficient in the other stretches.
• From there I will focus on the hamstrings, calves and quads. I will finish off with some upper body stretches such as chest and triceps stretch.
• For the more experienced people who work out often, any yoga stretches are great for the body and mind.
• So improving your flexibility will set the positive tone for a strong platform to then being able to workout at your best and staying injury free.

TIP: Try and hold every stretch for 15-20 seconds.

Brad Crosher is a Personal Trainer and Tennis Coach.

Find out more about him at bgctennis.com

Last Updated on Feb 28, 2015