| ||
| ||
|
Exercise Information | |
|
|
STRETCHING; Why Should I?
This short article looks at some of the tips, tricks and helpful hints you can use to help prevent sports injury and do-away with stiff, aching muscles & joints. It's been put together to answer some of the more common questions we get regarding stretching and sports injury, and details a number of useful sports injury prevention techniques. I hope it proves useful to you.
If you're involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favourite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you'll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you're actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you're losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you're also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability. A sports injury is a bit like losing money. Not only do you lose whatever you were going to buy with that money, but you also have to work hard to make up the money you've lost. Take it from me; a sports injury is one of the most frustrating and debilitating occurrences that can happen to anyone who's serious about their health, fitness, sport or exercise.
I recently read an article titled "Managing Sports Injuries" where the author estimated that over 27,000 American's sprain their ankle every day. (And no, that's not a typo, EVERY DAY!) On top of this, Sports Medicine Australia estimates that 1 in every 17 participants of sport and exercise are injured playing their favourite sport. This figure is even higher for contact sports like Football and Gridiron. However, the truly disturbing fact is that up to 50 percent of these injuries may have been prevented.
While there are a number of basic preventative measures that will assist in the prevention of sports injury, there is one technique that has slowly been gaining in popularity. It's still not used as often as it should be by the average sports participant, but with the professionals using it more and more, it's only a matter of time before it starts to catch on. Before we dive into this little used technique for minimizing your likelihood of sports injury, let's take a quick look at some other techniques to help you prevent sports injury.
Most people are coming to understand both the importance and the benefits of a good warm-up. A correct warm-up will help to raise body temperature, increase blood flow and promote oxygen supply to the muscles. It will also help to prepare the mind, body, muscles and joints for the physical activity to come. While warming-up is important, a good cool-down also plays a vital role in helping to prevent sports injury. How? A good cool-down will prevent blood from pooling in your limbs. It will also prevent waste products, such as lactic acid, building up in your muscles. Not only that, a good cool-down will help your muscles and tendons to relax and loosen, stopping them from becoming stiff and tight. While preventative measures such as warming-up and cooling-down play a vital role in minimizing the likelihood of sports injury, other techniques such as obeying the rules, using protective equipment and plain common sense are all useful.
So what is this magic technique? Why is it such a secret? And how come you haven't heard of it before? Well chances are you have, and also, it's not that secret and it's definitely not magic. You've probably used this technique yourself at some point or at least seen others using it. But the real question is, how dedicated have you been to making this technique a consistent part of your athletic preparation? What is it? STRETCHING. Yes, stretching. The simple technique of stretching can play an imperative role in helping you to prevent the occurrence of sports injury. Unfortunately stretching is one area of athletic preparation often neglected. Do not underestimate its benefits. Don't make the mistake of thinking that something as simple as stretching won't be effective. Stretching is a vital part of any exercise program and should be looked upon as being as important as any other part of your health and fitness. In recent time the professionals have been getting more and more serious about stretching and ultimately, their flexibility. The coaches and trainers are just starting to realize how important flexible muscles are to helping prevent sports injury. Flexibility has often been neglected in the overall conditioning of modern athletes. It's only now that its benefits are proving invaluable to all those serious about staying injury free.
One of the greatest benefits of stretching is that you're able to increase the length of both your muscles and tendons. This leads to an increased range of movement, which means your limbs and joints can move further before an injury occurs. Let's take a look at a few examples. If the muscles in your neck are tight and stiff this limits your ability to look behind or turn your head around. If for some reason your head is turned backwards, past its' normal range of movement, in a football scrum or tackle for example, this could result in a muscle tear or strain. You can help to prevent this from happening by increasing the flexibility, and the range of movement, of the muscles and tendons in your neck. And what about the muscles in the back of your legs? The Hamstring muscles. These muscles are put under a huge strain when doing any sort of sport which involves running and especially for sports which require kicking. Short, tight hamstring muscles can spell disaster for many sports people. By ensuring these muscles are loose and flexible, you'll cut your chance of a hamstring injury dramatically. How else can stretching help? While injuries can occur at any time, they are more likely to occur if the muscles are fatigued, tight and depleted of energy. Fatigued, tight muscles are also less capable of performing the skills required for your particular sport or activity. Stretching can help to prevent an injury by promoting recovery and decreasing soreness. Stretching ensures that your muscles and tendons are in good working order. The more conditioned your muscles and tendons are, the better they can handle the rigors of sport and exercise, and the less likely that they'll become injured. So as you can see, there's more to stretching than most people think. Stretching is a simple and effective activity which will help you to enhance your athletic performance, decrease your likelihood of sports injury and minimise muscle soreness. If you'd like to know more about stretching and how it can help you, visit http://www.TheStretchingHandbook.com/ today. **************************** Article by Brad Walker. Brad is a prominent Australian sports trainer with more than 15 years experience in the health and fitness industry. Brad is a Health Science graduate of the University of New England and has postgraduate accreditations in athletics, swimming and triathlon coaching. He also works with elite level and world champion athletes and lectures for Sports Medicine Australia on injury prevention. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to forward it to others, make it available from your site or post it on forums for others to read. Just make sure that this paragraph and URL are included. For more information and articles on stretching, flexibility and sports injury, visit The Stretching & Sports Injury Newsletter at; 101 Stretching Exercises
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 4 Welcome to article number 4 in our series "Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts". In this article we are going to talk about how bodybuilders tend to create massive muscle imbalances and what you can do to not be one of them. 4 Exercises That Will Help You Change Your Body Faster Than Any Other Exercises You May Have Tried 1. Lunges with a barbell. 2 Exercises to Avoid If you want a good night, then avoid two of these old school moves.Good Mornings:Although I can't say I've seen these moves done in quite some time, I know that growing up I saw plenty of pictures of how the move should be done. Benefit of Pilates One of the main benefits of Pilates is it refreshes your physical and mental well-being. Pilates is a series of controlled movements that unite the body and mind and creates a direct connection to the muscles. Workouts That Travel A vacation can do wonders for reducing stress levels, but it can derail a healthy fitness regimen. Even some of the most die-hard exercisers find it difficult to stick with a workout program when away from home. Monitor Your Body Fat Levels For Results A very important aspect in really finding out if you're on the right track or not, is to monitor your body fat levels. Go to your local sports store and buy some body fat calipers to test your fat levels. No Time For The Gym? As you have undoubtedly heard, college students around the country are gaining weight at a rapid rate. A recent study by Cornell University found that on average, college freshman gain about 0. Lance Armstrong and Exercise - From Denial to Desire! Press Conference 1996 - Lance Armstrong On Wednesday October 2, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I have been made aware that it has spread to other parts of my body. Forget Exercise - Go Play Can't seem to get the energy or motivation to exercise? Forget exercise - go play. For most of us exercise is a chore. Physical Fitness - Is Your Workout Missing Something? Hiking along a rocky trail, two of the three friends carefully picked their way from rock to rock. But one leaped from rock to rock, bounding by the others like a gazelle running and leaping from rock to rock. Arthritis Exercise - One Way to Relieve Pain & Stiffness in Your Joints (part 1) Exercise can be very beneficial for arthritis sufferers, often relieving stiffness in joints, strengthening muscles thereby reducing stress on joints, keeping bone and cartilage tissue strong and healthy, and increasing flexibility. A recommended 30-minute minimum of daily activity is the norm. Lance Armstrong's Training Tactics - The Tortoise or the Hare? I have been counseling people on weight loss, exercise efficiency and nutrition for over twenty years. Every time I go to the gym I observe people, their training tactics and their workout habits. Exercise Smarter Not Harder - 10 Ways to Make Consistent Progress in Your Exercise Plan! My name is Greg Ryan. I am a fitness expert, professional bodybuilder personal trainer to movie stars, and former employee of Kathy Smith. Mixing Things Up To say that the human body is an amazing machine is an understatement, especially when it comes to diet and exercise. Our bodies are constantly trying to achieve a state of homeostasis. Reviewing Weider Home Gyms For most of us non-professional body builders the Weider Home Gyms can be a great addition to our exercising needs. Driving times, busy and active schedules makes this product a must have tool in the convenience of your own home. A 30-minute, Or Less, Full Body Workout Most people do not have the time to do biceps and back one day, then legs and shoulders the next, then triceps and abdominals the next day. So here is a short, and every effective full body weight session you can easily get done in 30 minutes or less. Weight Loss and Fitness - Facts not Fiction The world of weight loss and fitness is certainly vast, and the American consumer can absolutely get lost in the thousands of easy effortless and ostly useless ads if not careful. With my books and research I want to clear the air about the various myths and false statements regarding our health and fitness that have clearly muddied the waters for many Americans. 10 User Friendly Habits for Successful Home Gym Training Are you dissatisfied with your current training program? Are you not achieving the results you had hoped for when you started training? If you are you stuck on a fitness plateau and are in need of some tips on how to start seeing progress then keep reading.I am sure you want to see results from your training program (why would you do it if you didn't want to see results, right?). 10 Workout Mistakes Cheaters Make "When I'm lifting free weights, I tend to go pretty fast on the downward motion when I'm supposed to be using more control," says Beth Pekol, who works in banking in Chicago."I lean on the StairMaster when I'm on it," says Shaun Stewart, a new bride who lives in Memphis. Should You Train Before Bedtime? A Japanese study found that if you exercise at night you will be less tired the next day. Apparently it increases testosterone levels.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
