When to stretch? In the morning, before starting the day’s activities. At work, when you feel tense or stressed. After sitting or standing for a long time. When feeling stiff. At odd times of the day, such as when watching TV, listening to music, reading a book or just sitting and talking. Why stretch? Helps relieve muscle tension and makes the body more relaxed. Helps to improve coordination by making the body move more easily and freely. Helps to expand the body’s range of motion. Helps prevent sports injuries such as muscle sprains. Helps make high-intensity sports such as running, skiing, tennis, swimming and cycling easier. Helps improve awareness of the body. Helps to relax the brain’s control over the body so that it moves “for the sake of movement” rather than for competition or vanity. Makes you feel great! How to stretch? The right way is to stretch loosely and consistently, focusing on the muscle being stretched. The wrong way is to move extremely fast and stretch to the point of physical pain, which actually does more harm than good. Easy stretches When starting a stretch, take 5 to 15 seconds to do an easy stretch. Do not move too fast, stretch until you feel a slight stretching tension, and then hold the movement while taking care to relax. During this process, the stretching tension will slowly disappear. If this is not the case, then relax your body slightly to achieve a stretch that feels comfortable to you. Advanced Stretch After finishing the easy stretch, you can gradually move on to the advanced stretch. At this point, still do not move too fast, stretch to move your body little by little until you feel a slight stretching tension again, then hold this position for 5 to 15 seconds, to control your body, the stretching feeling will still slowly disappear, if not the flower, please relax your body a little. When holding a certain posture, if your stretching sensation increases and you feel pain, it is overstretching. Progressive stretching can regulate the muscle state and improve the flexibility of the body. Breathing When stretching, you should control your breathing so that it is slow and rhythmic. If the body is bent forward to do the stretch, then you should exhale while bending the body forward and inhale while holding the position. You should not hold your breath while stretching. If you cannot breathe naturally during a particular stretch, you are not getting relaxation, please slow down the movement so that you can breathe naturally. Counting At first, count silently in your mind as you do each stretch, this will ensure that you keep the right feeling of stretching for a long enough time. After a while, you won’t have to count while stretching, but will follow your own sensations. Stretch reflex Muscles rely on the “stretch reflex” mechanism for self-protection. Whenever a muscle is overstretched, the nerve will send a signal to the muscle to contract, preventing damage to the muscle. Overstretching or stretching too quickly can cause the muscle to tense and activate the forward reflex. This causes pain and sports injuries due to the pulling of muscle microfibers, which leads to the creation of injured tissue in the muscle that slowly loses flexibility and becomes tense and sore. When pain is felt in stretching, it is difficult to develop enthusiasm for stretching and performing exercise every day. There is pain, and there is no gain. Proper stretching does not produce any pain, and if there is pain it means that this is done somewhere wrong.