2. Stretch the front side of the thigh: hold the wall or post and other fixtures with your left hand to keep your body balanced. Lift your right foot backward, grasp the instep of your right foot with your right hand, and slowly and forcefully stretch it to your arm, and keep this action 15 seconds. Then switch to the other side and do the same thing.
3, calf stretching: grab the railings and other fixtures with both hands, and keep the body leaning forward. Left foot in front, right foot in back, left foot bent, right foot straight. The center of gravity of the body moves forward slowly, and the right foot is always straight during this process until the calf muscles feel stretched. This action is maintained for 15 seconds. Then change your feet and repeat the same action.
Benefits of stretching:
1, improve the flexibility of the body. Stretching increases the range of motion of a joint or a group of joints, which can make the nervous system more tolerant to stretching posture, but this effect will disappear within a day or even hours. If you want to improve your flexibility for a long time, it is recommended to stretch hard for 5 to 6 days a week.
2, help to better activate muscles during exercise. Sticking to regular stretching exercise can also improve sports performance. The greater the range of motion, the more muscles can be activated. For example, the hamstring muscle has a limited range of motion, and only 40% of the muscles can be activated when doing one-leg hard pulling. However, if the flexibility of hamstring muscle increases, it can be activated by 60
% muscle. The end result is that you can strengthen your muscles, lift heavier weights and become stronger.
3. Daily life feels more relaxed. Increasing flexibility can not only improve the level of exercise, but also make daily life easier. Although you may not realize this, there are many daily tasks (such as sitting in a chair and getting up from it, bending down to pick up a toddler) that involve a certain degree of flexibility.
4. Prepare for formal exercise. Dynamic stretching also helps to activate the connection between the brain and muscles. Brain-muscle connection means that muscles can work more effectively in exercise only when they are thinking about those muscles that are activated when moving the body in their minds. For example, hamstring and gluteal muscles can be fully mobilized when doing hard pulling, rather than the muscles of the lower back.
5. Reduce the risk of injury. Warm-up before exercise helps to reduce the risk of injury, and dynamic stretching is an indispensable part of warm-up. Dynamic stretching helps to warm up muscles, joints and tendons, temporarily increase the range of motion, and then complete the action in an ideal posture during exercise, which also reduces the chance of injury.
6, help to calm the body after exercise. Static stretching after exercise is helpful to lower the heart rate, calm breathing and relieve the high excitement during exercise more quickly. Another way to achieve this calm state is to combine static stretching with deep breathing. Stretching after exercise can also increase blood flow, increase oxygen content and deliver nutrients to the body and muscles, thus promoting recovery.
7. Accurately locate the unbalanced parts of the body. Stretching can be used to identify particularly tight and unbalanced parts of the body, so that you have a chance to correct these problem parts before they cause harm. For example, when you do an arrow squat to stretch the hip flexors, you find that the right side sinks deeper than the left side, which reminds you that the hip joint is unbalanced when you open it. This problem will also occur when you do other sports involving hips, such as running, squatting, hip bridge and so on. Adding more unilateral training in daily exercise will help to eliminate this imbalance.
8. Relieve the pain. Sitting for a long time will cause some muscles to shorten to adapt, thus feeling "tight". Doing static stretching exercises often helps to relieve pain by increasing muscle flexibility.