Welcome back to my blog.
In this post, let’s discuss one of the most key essentials to proper fitness and wellness goals: stretching.
I cannot stress this enough. Proper stretching is necessary for warming up your muscles prior to exercises and during the rest, recovery, or “cool down” period after working out. This goes most importantly for medium- to high-impact interval training (MIIT/HIIT). More on that later…
The focus of proper stretching often targets the muscle groups that you will soon exercise. That way, it can reduce your risk of sustaining any significant short- or long-term injury. For example, before going for a jog or a run, be sure to stretch out your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and ankles. You can start off with ankle rolls, knee hugs, calf raises, and hamstring scoops.
Before engaging in heavy lifting exercises/weight training, warm up your shoulders, upper body, and core if you are targeting the upper body. Such warmup exercises can include shoulder taps, push-ups, Superman floor stretches, and lat pull-downs. Core warmups include mountain climbers, hip bridges, bicycle crunches, abdominal crunches, and sit-ups.