Common Stretching Mistakes to Avoid

Contrary to the popular belief, stretching plays a decisive role in an individual’s overall health. If done in a proper way, it helps in prevention of injury as well as in its treatment. However, improper stretching further stiffens the muscles. Here are some of the common stretching mistakes that should be avoided:

• Planning an inconsistent routine: One of the most important rules of stretching is to be consistent with the routine. Ideally, it is recommended to perform about six to eight stretches twice a day, in order to make the joints more flexible and improve blood circulation. Failure in doing so is a big mistake.
• Skipping or rushing through the warm up session: It is necessary to have a proper warming up session before you actually begin your stretching session as it relaxes the muscles and prepares you body for the stretching. Avoiding warm up sessions may result in some serious injury. 
• Performing the static stretching in the beginning: Go for static stretching while concluding your stretching session as it maximizes the length of your muscle.
• Not having sufficient gap between various stretches: It is important to take a break of 15-20 seconds between two stretches. Relax your body for some time in the stretched position before moving onto the next position.
• Not concentrating on the right muscles: Many times we focus more towards some particular muscle and ignore the rest. As a result, these muscles loosen up while the rest continue to remain tight. Therefore, you should pay equal attention towards all the groups of muscles in order to have a healthy body.
• Stretching yourself beyond your pain threshold: While stretching, ideally you should feel a mild pulling in your muscles and with time when this pulling eases off, you should increase the intensity. However, if you feel any sort of discomfort or pain, you should decrease the intensity or stop it altogether.
• Following a stagnant and unvarying stretch routine: Some people stick to the same routine throughout the year without making any necessary changes. This way, they do not get desired results. Talk to your trainer and see if he can make changes in every two months.
• Not maintaining a record of your stretching session: In order to gain maximum benefit from your stretching session, it is very necessary to keep a track of all your sessions. You can note down various stretches that you do and also the duration for which you do them. Maintaining a record also helps in regularizing your sessions.
• Starting to get impatient: You can avail the benefits of stretching over a period of time. If you start stretching and wish to see the results overnight, you tend to lose patience and get disinterested. Therefore, it is important to have patience and gradually get the benefits of stretching over a period of time.

If you keep these points in mind and make sure not to make these mistakes, you can get maximum benefits of stretching and maintain an over all fitness of the body.

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