Let's talk about stretching!

It’s Rhi here and it's been a while since I last wrote a blog, so I thought it was time that I put pen to paper.

As many you will know I spend a lot of my time exercising, from running to weight training. Over the past year I have added another dynamic into my work out routine – stretching! Yes stretching. For those of you who have run at a Happy Feet group, you will know how important stretching is.

As a serial exerciser I was always suffering from aches and pains. As a professional I know that’s not right, so I’ve been investing more of my time on my stretching routine and it has helped me loads, firstly I’ve stayed injury free but most importantly my stiff legs are a thing of the past, I’ve also noticed how amazing and enthused I feel after a good stretch session.

There are several reasons why we should all stretch, especially after exercise. When we are working out, our muscles are constantly contracting and relaxing to make us move, with use, our muscles naturally become shorter which can cause muscle aches, soreness and potentially injury. By stretching we return our muscles to pre-exercise length, leaving us feeling looser and more flexible.

Although we may stretch after exercise, it is important to build additional stretching into our workout routine to improve our flexibility. In our everyday lives we carry out activities that cause shortening of our muscles, for example, sitting at a desk all day, lifting, carrying and just moving about.
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In order to improve our flexibility, rather than just keeping at the same level, we really need to do some deeper, longer stretches to elongate those muscles, making us feel much more supple.

In our post exercise stretch routines we hold stretches for 10-20 seconds, to really make improvement on our muscle length we need to hold stretches for 90secs-2 minutes, using different positions to be more diverse and stretch the muscles in different ways.

Ahhh, all this can sound like a massive headache. It doesn’t have to be, following an additional stretch routine can be super easy especially if you join our members only Tuesday evening online stretch class.

To join the class or if you have any questions, just drop us a message and we’ll do our best to help you.
Rhi