Flexibility is the key to health and youth. 16 Best Stretching Exercises

Cat/cow

This pose is designed to warm up the spinal column and work the back, neck and shoulders. The technique is as follows:

1. Place your palms on your feet.
2. Lean forward, lifting your head up.
3. Freeze for a few seconds.
4. Arch your back like cats do.

Repeat the exercise at least 10 times before each workout.

Training Tips

To get maximum results from flexibility training or at home, use the following tips:

• Do everything slowly: be patient, do special exercises slowly to avoid injury.
• Repetition is the mother of learning : flexibility comes and goes, so do aerobic and dynamic exercises consistently, even if you have achieved what you wanted.
• Appreciate the little things : Sometimes stretching can actually be harder than strength training because it can be difficult to achieve visible results.
• Focus on exercise : Just like yoga, try to forget about the rest of the day and any problems in your life. Relieving tension will increase the effectiveness of exercise.
• Close your eyes : Once you feel that you are safe in a particular position, close your eyes. Thus, the emphasis is on one of the feelings or sensations. This is an easy path to self-discovery.

Back extension

This type of stretching works great as long as you don't push yourself too hard. Its essence is as follows:

Daughter Osin told how she lives with her young husband. Agnia grew up to be a beauty

What to do on the first of every month so that your dreams finally come true

Fashion designer and architect join forces to create a vibrant clothing collection

1. Lie on your back.
2. Using your elbows and hips, lift yourself off the ground and hold for a while.

You need to do the exercise 3 times before going to bed. It helps improve flexibility and relieve back pain.

How long does it take to train to see results?

How long does it take to train yourself and become more flexible? After about six weeks, you will be able to effortlessly perform exercises to develop body plasticity, which at the beginning of training seemed impossible to you. After which you shouldn’t stop there. Be sure to include some stretching movements in your workout plan. In addition, it is recommended to start every morning with just such a complex instead of exercises for weight loss. 30 seconds, 10 minutes a day will be enough to see real changes in six weeks and feel like a professional gymnast from the picture for a while. The set of exercises below will help you with this.

Bridge stretching

Helps strengthen the muscles of the neck, spinal column and hips. The correct technique is as follows:

1. Lean back in your chair with your legs tucked under you.
2. Slowly rise up, leaning only on your shoulders.
3. Fix your body for 30 seconds.

The exercise shows excellent results, so three repetitions will be enough.

Content

• 1 Flexibility exercises 1.1 Standing quadriceps stretch
• 1.2 Warm up the ankles
• 1.3 Pulling the knee to the chest while standing
• 1.4 Calf stretch
• 1.5 Achilles tendon stretch
• 1.6 Side lunge
• 1.7 Straight leg stretch
• 1.8 Quadriceps stretch while kneeling
• 1.9 Pretzel
• 1.10 Groin stretch I
• 1.11 Groin stretch II
• 1.12 Lower back stretch I
• 1.13 Lumbar Stretch II
• 1.14 Three-position stretch
• 1.15 Tilt to straight leg
• 1.16 Stretching with body rotation
• 1.17 Pulling the knee to the chest using a uniform
• 1.18 Transverse stretch
• 1.19 Straight leg pull-up
• 1.20 Barrier
• 1.21 Lying quadriceps stretch
• 1.22 Transverse arm stretch
• 1.23 Hand behind head
• 1.24 Stretching the finger flexors and extensors
• 1.25 Side tilt
• 1.26 Abdominal stretch
• 1.27 Comprehensive neck stretch

Tilts to the side

The muscles of the back, abs, groin and hamstrings are involved. Tilts are performed according to the following algorithm:

1. Spread your feet 1.5 m wide.
2. Keep your arms parallel to the ground.
3. Bend your knees and lean alternately to each side.

By doing 10 repetitions, you will prepare your muscles for more intense workouts.

The yoga instructor explained what to do in the morning so that the body says “thank you”

Goby and 2 other types of fish that should not be fed to a cat if its health is important

We liked each other immediately. How Tigran Keosayan's wives became friends

Is it worth going to special training?

First of all, a good fitness class should be lively, with an individual approach to everyone, where an attentive instructor will correct, give advice and offer exercise options that are difficult to do at home. If you have some free time, the gym is nearby and your funds allow, then it’s worth signing up for such classes.

We recommend: gym training program for beginners.

Some private classes include elements of “assisted stretching,” when the instructor helps you and guides you during training, because it is not always possible to squat to the desired depth from scratch on your own, reach any part of your body, or stretch. Group fitness classes are also about meeting people with similar interests face to face. No online group can replace the element of social interaction.

Stretching exercises vary in range of motion, some of which may include elements of yoga or Pilates. The classes are designed and useful for men and women with any experience and level of physical fitness, so don’t worry too much that you will be a “black sheep” there.

Extended Puppy

This type of stretching targets all muscle groups of the upper body. The technique is as follows:

1. Get on all fours.
2. Slowly lean forward, lowering your chest as close to the floor as possible.
3. Freeze for a few seconds, then return to the starting position.

Perform the exercise 3 times before each workout.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability of the body's muscles to relax and be easily stretched. Exercises to develop flexibility are essentially stretching exercises. Their main task is to increase the range of motion of the joint and lengthen pathologically shortened muscles.

People naturally have varying degrees of flexibility. This is due to the individual anatomical features of the body structure. With age, the range of motion steadily decreases. And simple actions, which you simply did not pay attention to in your youth, are difficult, and sometimes just require titanic efforts. You can avoid this by regularly performing a set of stretching exercises.

Flexibility exercises are available at any age.

Side lunges

This technique aims to strengthen the muscles of the lower torso. It looks like this:

1. Place your feet two shoulder-widths apart.
2. Slowly shift your center of gravity to your right leg and lunge.
3. Freeze for a while.

Perform 3 times on each side, trying to keep your back perfectly straight.

Is it even possible to become flexible?

Flexibility is a very interesting concept.

Well, first of all, how to determine whether a person is flexible or not?

The one who can tie his body into a knot is certainly flexible, the one who, bending over, does not reach the floor with his hands, is a wooden Pinocchio.

But there is also an intermediate link.

So, what to do with girls who can do the splits, but don’t demonstrate any other special tricks?

Should they try to become more flexible or not?

Another question that worries the minds of girls is whether it is possible to become flexible at all or is it a natural talent?

The true answer to this question lies somewhere in the middle.

There are people who are already born with gutta-percha, and there are those who, through long training, manage to develop at least a little flexibility and their results do not seem too impressive to anyone.

It depends on your luck, but any girl can become sufficiently flexible if she is not lazy.

Why become flexible and do special exercises?

1. You strengthen your muscles, especially your legs and back.
2. Make your posture more beautiful.
3. You gain elegance and grace.
4. Better sleep.
5. Become more resilient.
6. Activate your sexual energy.
7. Increases the overall tone of the body.

Hamstring stretch

This stretching technique is considered one of the best for developing leg flexibility. The exercise is performed according to the following scheme:

“They put meat in jellied meat”: what do Russians snack on, according to the Chinese

Engineers are on trend: the most promising specialties in Russian universities are named

“It’s harder for girls.” Dobronravov told why their dynasty could be interrupted

1. Sit on the floor, keeping your legs straight in front of you.
2. Stretch your arms forward, tilting your torso as close to your lower limbs as possible.
3. Freeze for 10 seconds.

Do 3 times every day. If you experience discomfort or pain in your legs, you should stop training.

Effect on muscle gain and body tone

The development of flexibility rather has an indirect effect on muscle mass gain. By stretching your muscles, you increase their strength, which improves your range of motion. This in turn allows you to work on those muscle groups that were previously inaccessible due to lack of flexibility.

It looks like a domino effect, where each subsequent domino depends on the previous one: well-being and posture improve, health improves, a sense of balance develops, which affects performance in training and quality of life in general.

Tendon stretching

This is a good alternative to the method described above. With its help you can quickly develop leg flexibility. The technique is as follows:

1. Sit on the floor and extend one leg forward.
2. Bend the other at the knee, placing your foot next to your thigh.
3. Stretch your arm forward, tilting your body towards the floor.

Perform the exercise several times for each leg.

Effect on fat burning and weight loss processes

Stretching exercises alone won't shed those extra pounds, but good flexibility is the path to a healthier lifestyle, and the added ease of movement can be an incentive to exercise more and trim your belly and sides. Such exercises help a person better understand their body, feel and look better, increase self-esteem, and this motivates them to continue to exercise and eat right.

Seated Spinal Twist

Ideal for stretching the muscles of the shoulders, chest and back. The technique is as follows:

1. Take a sitting position with your legs forward.
2. Bend your left limb at the knee and place it on top of your right.
3. Freeze for a few seconds, then return to the starting position.
4. Perform the exercise with each leg at least five times.

All these exercises are good both on their own and in combination. With their help, you can effectively work out all muscle groups and achieve good results in a very short period of time.

Found a violation? Report content

How to prepare for the exercises?

To begin, you need to choose a suitable time and place to reduce the likelihood of interruption of your workout. In stressful situations, when you urgently need to switch to physical exercise, you can ignore these factors and start exercising, even if the conditions are not entirely suitable.

The main thing is to calm your breathing as much as possible - to do this you need to concentrate on it and take several deep and conscious breaths, closing your eyes.

If the situation allows you to better prepare, in a calmer environment, then it is recommended to start the complex with aerobic exercises, the implementation of which requires energy expenditure, that is, the breakdown of carbohydrates (primarily), as well as fats.

Until the body uses up carbohydrates, fat reserves will remain untouched, so if weight loss is a priority, then, in addition to yoga and fitness, it is necessary to adjust your diet - reduce the amount of consumed “harmful” carbohydrates from sugar-containing foods and flour products.

Aerobic warm-up:

1. Running, jumping in place, with high knees. The arms are bent at the elbows.
2. Jumping from a squatting position. Stretch your arms up, straight back. Jump out and squat down again, touching your hands to the floor.
3. Swing your legs up and to the side.

At the end of the warm-up, you can simply dance a little to your favorite music.