Building muscle and burning fat are essential factors in creating a healthy and fit body, but flexibility is just as important. To stay in good physical shape, you need to do different flexibility activities that help stretch and lengthen your muscles.
This not only creates a slimmer, longer body, but also increases range of motion, improves posture, and relieves both physical and mental stress.
6 exercises to improve flexibility
Practice yoga poses
Yoga involves using different poses or positions to help stretch the different muscle groups in your body. There are several types of yoga you can practice, but one of the main goals of all of these types is to improve overall flexibility.
There are different postures for all the muscles, tendons and joints of your body; You don't have to have much flexibility to start a yoga practice.
Pilates for flexible muscles
Pilates is one of the best exercises to get the most flexibility benefits. It allows you to train multiple muscle groups at the same time and has a relatively low impact, making it safe for anyone. It helps you develop long, lean muscles and flexibility, and allows you to create a uniformly conditioned body, helping to prevent injury. With a wide range of flexibility exercises of varying difficulty, you can choose to make your workout as low or high intensity as you like.
Tai Chi to facilitate movement
Tai Chi is a martial art that uses slow, controlled movements to help improve flexibility and promote stress relief. He is known to help with a multitude of health problems including anxiety, fatigue, joint stiffness, muscle tension, and stress. You can learn it from books or videos so you can do it in the comfort of your home, or sign up for a class to learn tai chi in a group setting. It is smooth and low impact, making it ideal for all ages and fitness levels.
Water aerobics
Water aerobics is a form of cardiovascular activity that is not only effective in improving flexibility, but also a lot of fun. Like tai chi, it is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels. You get effective training without putting as much pressure on your joints as with other types of exercise. Because being in the water gives you a weightless feeling and offers gentle resistance, this type of exercise is often prescribed by doctors for pregnant women and people with overweight, joint or bone problems.
Dance to keep the stiffness away
Dancers are always very flexible, and there is a good reason for that. The dancers spend a lot of time stretching, then a long time dancing, both activities that help to be more flexible. Dancing helps loosen and lengthen muscles, while increasing strength and endurance. Stretching before your workout is mandatory to loosen your muscles and avoid stiffness or tightness during training.
The importance of stretching
Stretching before and after your cardio and strength training sessions is important and helps further increase your flexibility. There are two main types of stretching: dynamic and static stretching . Dynamic stretching involves movement, while static stretching requires you to hold one position. Holding a static stretch for 30 seconds is ideal, long enough to work but not long enough to risk injury to your body. Stick to dynamic stretching before training and static stretching after training for best results.
