Properly Stretch Before Exercise.

by bannana inventor

5.4K928

Intro: Properly Stretch Before Exercise.

In this Instructable I will show you how to stretch properly before an exercise.

This shows you how to stretch the following things:
Arms
Cavs
Thighs
Shoulders
Back

STEP 1: First, Stretch Your Cavs and Thieghs.

Try to touch your toes down the center to the left and to the right. (See Pictures) You should feel a pull in the back of your legs.

STEP 2: Next, Stretch Your Arms.

To start push your left arm to the right side of your body. Hold for ten seconds. Then do the same thing with you right arm to the left side. You should feel a pull behind your shoulder.

STEP 3: Really Stretching Out Your Thighs.

Sit on the ground and put one leg in front of you and one leg behind you. Then lay back. This may be hard to understand so be sure to see the picture. After holding for ten seconds do the opposite side. You should REALLY feel a pull in your thighs if you are doing this correctly. You may not be able to do this the first time you try it so work your way down. :D

STEP 4: Finishing Up.

Shake everything off and do some arm circles and you have now properly stretched.

Be sure to do a warm down after your exercise. Your mussels are warm and if you stop right away without a warm down your mussels will tighten up and start hurting bad. To warm down just keep what ever mussels you just used moving. Get slower and slower with your movment. After a few minutes of that you are done with you warm down. Hope I helped and don't forget to vote for me in the Burning Questions Contest. THANK YOU :D

29 Comments

Norfolkson 6 years ago

What you seem to be doing is STATIC stretching. Static stretching is only recommended for cool downs after exercise. Always use DYNAMIC stretches before activity! What static stretching tends to do before an activity is program your muscles to only go so far. If during your activity you encounter a move that goes beyond the static stretch you run the considerable risk of pulling a tendon.

KnexFreek 14 years ago

uhhh.. you leg izz broke

jillg 15 years ago

cool i just finished my intractable on stretching so i looked at this one good job like the face effects

I_am_Canadian 15 years ago

Is that make racist? Being pitch-black and all weird?

DrWeird117 15 years ago

step 3 looks like someone put a trash bag over your head to suffocate you, then threw you out of a tree.

ZeroFlop 15 years ago

I'm sorry but I have to point out that this is not a good method of stretching. First as mentioned warming up before exercising is more important. There is no supporting proof that prestretching has any benefit. Although post exercise you can get up to 40% improved muscle growth because your separating the muscle fibers improving opportunity for growth. Anyway standing and doing the toe touch is very dangerous because it puts more stress on the back then the hamstrings. There are better options available. And in any reputable gym will not instruct this stretch. Also the quadriceps stretch that your doing puts a lot of stress on the knee. A better stretch is standing or kneeling with your hands on your heals and raising your hips forward.

acer73 15 years ago

Pre Stretching significantly lowers the risk of injury on the bodies muscular system. Not only does it physically stretch out muscles but actually heats up from increased blood flow. If stretching had no positive effect there would be no reason why any sports team would warm up. Stretching does not improve muscle growth it decreases the injury risk.

ZeroFlop 15 years ago

Again I would suggest a little research before making any recommendations especially when your talking about someones health and well being.

With little effort I found the following. I know little about xtremetrainingsystems.com but it is a concise and fair article on pre-stretching. With a number of references which are referred to by other articles on different sites.
http://www.xtremetrainingsystems.com/Stretching.html

Unfortunately I don't have a good link to any information on the benefits of post stretching. It seems its popular among the bodybuilders and so the first several pages of search hits all point to body building articles. One of the reasons I resist linking to the body building sites is they feel that the muscle growth is enhanced by stretching out the fascia which is contrary to what I was taught. I was taught that the post stretching released the contracted sarcromeres and allowed them to develop. Potentially it's a combination of the two.

The bodybuilding articles are anecdotal evidence and should be treated as such. They do support muscle growth benefits with post stretching which should warrant further investigation.

acer73 15 years ago

I never said anything about post stretching. But actually, stretching after an activity is even more beneficial because it improves the circulation, stretching out a muscle more and lets it repair quicker.

bannana inventor 15 years ago

This is how I stretch in cross country and I feel fine when I run and stretch.

ZeroFlop 15 years ago

You are a sample size of one, statistically insignificant. Also just because you feel fine doesn't mean you are not causing progressive damage to your back and/or knees. I assume your younger then some of us. I'm sure this could go back and forth so I would suggest you do some research. Here are two reputable resources you can look up. If you don't have the time for the library you can go to books.google.com or do a search for "dangers toe touch stretch" ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription By American College of Sports Nsca's Essentials of Personal Training:National Strength & Conditioning Association (U.S.)

lawizeg 15 years ago

You should NOT lie down in step four...you're hurting your hip. Just lean back a little that's all.

lawizeg 15 years ago

I'm gonna do one on this hopefully.
More Comments