Stretching will reduce the risk of injury before exercise or your physical activity routines by increasing your flexibility. As you age your flexibility is reduced, especially if you've been leading a sedentary lifestyle, so you should make it a part of your everyday routines anyway.



Be sure to always begin slowly and find how far you can gently stretch your muscles and tendons without any kind of discomfort or pain. When done properly, it will actually feel good. Completely stretch the muscles by holding at the end of the stretch for about ten to twenty seconds.

* Start out by gently rolling your neck and shoulders. Rotate your wrist back and forth and bend your arms. If you can, slowly swing each individual arm to make the largest sphere type pattern (This motion will bring your arm past your side each time to complete the sphere). Also, with arms directly out from your sides, turn your arms in a tight circle pattern.

* Stand erect and place your hands on your hips. With feet comfortably apart, begin to bend your body to the left and hold for 10 to 15 seconds, then go right and hold. Try not to lean forward.

* You perform this one the same as the last with hands on hips, only you are now going to rotate your upper body in a full rounding type motion including a downward motion toward your knees. Slow and easy works best.

* With an erect stance, lift your arms up towards the ceiling and carefully go up and down from heels to tippy toes while holding the stretch in the toes position for ten seconds or so.

* This time while standing straight, slowly bend down and touch your toes. Now stand up touching your hips then raise your arms above your head. Try and do it in a slow fluid motion. Repeat the process and hold for 20 seconds while touching your toes.

* Find a table or counter top that is around waist high. Now stand sideways with one of your hips facing the surface. Place one hand on the surface palm down and raise the other arm above your head in a C shape like a balarina. Slowly go up on your toes while bending towards your other arm. ( This is also good for reducing love handles, so you may want to make it part of your fat burning activity routines).

Once you have stretched for 5 or 10 minutes, you are ready to begin your fat burning activity routines or exercise program. Everyones bodytype is different, so be sure to only do the stretches you can perform without to much strain or difficulty. When you first begin you will feel a little stiff, but this will go away as you progress and should start feeling good.

Apply these stretching routines before all your activities, including normal physical activity. You should be feeling more nimble and healthy especially if you've finally made the decision to include exercise or physical activity routines into your daily life. Quality exercise combined with a quality diet program will give you the best chance possible to get to the proper weight and fit look you've been seeking.