Stretching exercises for flexibility

Stretching Means Recovering and Preventing Injuries

As the title itself suggests, doing proper stretching techniques on a regular bases can help you avoid many problems later. Moreover, once you are suffering from any kind of muscle, joint, tendon, ligament or other complications and conditions, proper stretching can help your body recover more quickly, by making these body parts stronger and increasing your blood flow, removing any muscle injuries in shorter time spans.

Useful Stretching Exercises

The following exercises will increase your flexibility and make you less prone to injuries. First type of these exercises is shoulder stretching. Namely, in order to perform this stretching activity, you are to stand straight, mingle the fingers from both hands together, and, as such, try to move your arms high above your head. Make sure your back is properly positioned and not curved. Once achieving this, hold for 10 seconds and repeat.

Triceps stretches are also recommended. These are performed by placing your chin onto your chest while, at the same time, bending your left arm in the elbow and placing it behind your neck, your palm facing it. Then, with your other hand, grab the palm and gently pull the bent arm towards the opposite side, feeling the muscles stretching. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat several times.

As far as your chest is concerned, you can do stretches by holding your hands behind your back, locking your elbows and trying to raise your arms as high as you can. The same holding and repeating patterns are applicable here as well.

You will stretch your forearms by kneeling on the floor with your palms on it, facing your knees. Then, push your body forward, stretching the forearm muscles.

In order to stretch our lower back and buttocks, you are to lie down on the floor, with your feet on it, knees bent. Then, raise your feet and, by pulling your knees with your hands, move them close to your chest. Your groin muscles are stretched by keeping your feet at least two meter wide from each other, placing your hands on one knee and transferring your weight onto it, bending it, while keeping the other leg straight. During repetitions you are to swap legs, naturally.

Stretching quadriceps muscles is done by supporting yourself on the chair while, with your other hand, grabbing one ankle and stretching your bent leg towards your lower upper body. On the other hand, hamstring stretching is performed by holding your knees while lying down on your back, stretching the muscles you are not holding. Your inner thighs are stretched by sitting down, holding your bent knees, and moving your upper body forward until you feel the desired effect. Finally, for your piriformis muscle stretching you should stand on all fours and extend one of your legs back as much as possible while resting on your forearms.