There are people who never stretch and there are people who always stretch. What’s the right approach? Really, it’s a matter of personal choice and what your body wants and needs. Here are some guidelines to help you design your own post workout stretch.
Muscle Lengthening or Range of Motion
First, determine whether you want to achieve lengthening of the muscle or just work through the muscle’s normal range of motion. How do you know what you need?
- If tightness in specific muscles is inhibiting your performance or causing discomfort, you may need to hold stretches with those muscles for 20 – 60 seconds for several repetitions. Chronic tightness and pain should be addressed with the help of a personal trainer or other wellness professional.
- For a standard post stretch workout, I recommend a full body approach with shorter duration stretches in which you focus more on range of motion than lengthening. As you move through the stretches, you can pause and increase the time on specific stretches to address any imbalances or areas that are tight.
I’ve included a video below as one example of a full body post workout stretch. If you follow the video, you’ll see that I hold most stretches for only 5 – 10 seconds. This range of motion approach:
- Relieves tension in muscles.
- Stimulates circulation to bring more oxygen to muscles and help move lactic acid out.
- Provides a full body scan to check for any issues with tightness or assymetry (one side tighter than the other).
Relieve Tension
When you work out, you ask your muscles to contract repeatedly. You work to coordinate movements. And you get your heart rate up. This post workout stretch is your chance to consciously ask all those muscles (and your brain!) to relax. Abruptly ending your workout without a cooldown can make it hard for your muscles to let go and fully relax.
As you stretch, pull your belly button in and push your breath out fully as you exhale. Then, inhale deep and bring air fully into the lowest portion lungs. Your shoulders should relax down and, to borrow the yogic term, you should start to feel more ‘centered’.
Stimulate Circulation
Your body responds to the demands of exercise by sending blood where it’s needed. A nice stretch session keeps the blood flowing, gets oxygen to all those muscles you’ve worked, and helps remove lactic acid. This, coupled with the relief of any muscle tension, should make you feel pretty darn good.
Full Body Scan
To design your post workout stretch, approach it as a full body scan. Then, as you wind down after a workout, check for any areas that feel exceptionally tight. Pause and stretch more fully as needed.
Also, pay attention to symmetry. Perhaps you have more trunk rotation to one side. Take a moment to stretch longer on the side that’s tight.
Flexibility Goals
Your flexibility goals are yours alone. How much you stretch depends on what feels right for you. Consider these two opposing principles:
- Increased flexibility can help you with sports specific activities. It can also help prevent pain and injury.
- On the other hand, a certain amount of tightness protects your joints and can even help you with some of your performance objectives.
Bottom line – it’s your body. Get input from coaches and trainers all you want and then find what makes your body feel like home. It should feel like a place where you can easily rest and easily move. I help my clients decide if they need to be more or less flexible OR if they’re ‘just right’ and simply need to perform regular range of motion cool downs for best results.
Follow along with this video for a simple post workout stretch:
I do a series of stretches similar to this at the end of all of my Tue/Thu morning virtual workouts – click here to learn more and…
Stay fit!
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The information on this video and linked accounts is provided for education only and is not intended to replace the advice of a physician or an assessment by other wellness professionals.