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Ignoring Your Flexibility is a Sure Way to Frustrating Your Fitness Goals

Introduction

Too many people, whether competitive athletes or those who just want to be fit and healthy, find themselves forced onto the couch to watch TV as they recover from an injury they received while training or participating in a recreational or sporting activity. 99% of these injuries could be prevented through regularly following an effective stretching program to increase flexibility and prepare the muscles, tendons and ligaments for vigorous exercise.

Pushing Yourself into New Areas of Endeavour Involves Risk

The person who wants to become fitter so they feel energetic, the weekend athlete who wants to be physically prepared for their game on the weekend, or the competitive athlete who wants to reach their maximum performance level, all face a similar problem.

Each one of these people have to push themselves through exercise into new levels of physical accomplishment, which means they are constantly demanding their bodies to perform at more difficult levels of endeavour. Whether it is jogging for an extra minute, swimming the 100 meters faster than they have ever swum that distance before, or lifting a weight 2 kilograms heavier than they have ever lifted before, the continual extra demand being placed on the muscles, ligaments and tendons is a reality.

With these ongoing extra physical demands being placed on the body, it is essential to minimise and as much as possible eliminate the potential for injury.

The Solution

Strengthen, through an effective stretching program, your ligaments and tendons (the ends of the muscles that tie into your bones) to minimise the possibility of the muscle being torn

Accustom your muscles to stretching beyond their normal range of motion through undertaking passive and dynamic stretches. Then, when you are placing greater demands on your body while participating in a high demand endeavour, your muscles will be conditioned to accept the additional stress thus avoiding injury

Follow a proper warm up and cool down stretching regime to correctly prepare your muscles prior to any physical activity and to allow the muscles to quickly recover following any vigorous exercise.

In Essence

Physical exertion over and above your usual day to day tasks, places your body at risk, leaving you susceptible to injury. (This is particularly important for the older athlete whose body is likely to have built up scar tissue from previous injuries). This is because you are placing additional physical demands on your body. To ensure your body can cope with these extra stress levels you have to have previously accustomed your muscles, ligaments and tendons through following an effective passive and dynamic stretching routine.

The Professional and Scientific Approach to Injury Free Training to Maximise Performance

In today’s world we are faced with numerous demands, particularly if we are working and have a family. This can result in our taking shortcuts so we can do all the various activities we need or want to do.

With our training we often look for the quickest ways to get the results we are after, so we have more time for our other interests and responsibilities. Fortunately for us there are some excellent result-producing workout and training programs that can provide great results, without having to spend endless hours performing ineffective exercises which do not make much if any difference in our achieving the results we want.

However, it is very important for us to know which exercises are result- producing and which exercises are of little value. It is also essential for us to know what we must do in order to minimise and, as much as possible, eliminate training and performance injuries. If we regularly get injured, we become more susceptible to injuring ourselves often, and this can result in our having long spells of inactivity which causes us to under-perform and frustrate our goals to attain our desired levels of fitness and well-being.

If we think we can train regularly without pre-conditioning our muscles, ligaments and tendons through performing effective stretching routines, then we will end up injured, forced to rest while our body heals and our fitness levels decrease.

Unless you are involved in an activity that involves the need for considerable flexibility (such as ballet, gymnastics or martial arts) you may not see a valid reason to include a stretching workout as part of your training routine, as you may think such a routine will not enhance your training or improve your performance.

Such thinking is virtually guaranteed to result in your being frustrated in your desire to achieve your goals. Whether those goals are to be a top athlete, to improve your recreational sport performance, or simply to feel youthful and energetic as you advance in your years.

Through following an effective stretching routine on a regular basis your muscles, ligaments and tendons will be conditioned to additional stress, your body will become more supple and you will have greater control on your body’s movement, all of which means you will be able to optimise your performance and achieve a greater sense of fitness, health and well-being.

You can gain benefits from following an effective stretching routine through as little as 10 to 15 minutes three to five times a week. This amount of time can be found in any busy person’s life and will add considerable benefits in allowing you to achieve your goals.

Enjoy your training,

Jonathan & Nancy Rishworth

For further information on stretching visit http://www.flexibilityplus.com