Many or today's society have muscular imbalances due to repetitive daily movements leading to pain and injury. Repetitive movements such as sitting for long periods, standing, driving, or anything else that you do all day repetitively places undue stress on the body. Muscular imbalances result in poor joint movement, inappropriate muscle functioning and decreased neuromuscular control. Start with static stretching to improve these imbalances.
Weather you are active or not, young or old, you can benefit from static stretching. Stretching is a great way to improve the range of motion around a joint, improve neuromuscular control, and improve the function of muscles. You can perform them anywhere and without any equipment.
Flexibility and static stretching exercises can be performed during warm up and cool down. Stretching during warm up prepares your muscles prior to exercise and prevents injury. Stretching after a workout improves joint range of motion and helps your muscles recover after a workout which also prevents excessive muscle soreness.
Static stretching is even more crucial if you are not active or you lead a sedentary lifestyle. It's important to remember to hold stretches for at least 30 seconds and only to a point where you feel slight tension.
Static, Active, Dynamic, and SMR with a foam roll are a few different forms of flexibility training. The most common is static stretching. Static stretches require that you hold a stretch for a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds. It helps to improve flexibility by lengthening the muscles being stretched. Static stretches are best for correcting muscular imbalances and is the best place to start.
SMR or self myofacial release is also a great form of corrective stretching to address muscular imbalances and can be combined with static stretching. This technique uses a foam roll to place pressure on "knots" or sensitive areas of a muscle. The pressure increases blood flow to the area and straightens bundled muscle fibers, which leads to lengthening of the muscles. This can be done by rolling on a foam roll and holding on a sensitive area until the sensitivity is reduced.
Active and dynamic stretching is another form of stretching which should be formed only as a warm up or before a workout. You can cool down with some static stretching. They require holding stretches for only a short duration and several repetitions. Yoga is a form of active isolated stretching.
Improving your flexibility and performing some static stretching exercises will not only feel great but will improve your posture, reduce your risk of injury, relieve pain, counteract aging, improve muscle recovery after workouts and reduce stress.