Reasons Why You Should Stretch After Your Workouts
13 Jan
If you’ve spent quite a lot of time exercising, you should already know of the importance of warming up. But if you think about it, we rarely see people do stretches after their workouts. More people need to know about the many benefits of actually stretching after each workout. If you lift weights in a gym or jog how many kilometers in Singapore, here are some great reasons to stretch after doing so.
It allows the body to cool down
Exercising will naturally put a certain amount of stress on your body. That is simply why you feel sore and fatigued after workouts. By stretching, you can help ease the muscles and joints even after having them do strenuous work. Another thing, if you don’t do cooldowns, your heart will pump out blood as if you were still exercising. This can be dangerous in some cases because your heart will circulate too much blood even if your body is already at rest.
It can help reduce the risk of pain and injury
Although stretching won’t completely eliminate the pain and soreness, it can reduce their effects and help you recover more quickly. When you stretch after exercise, you can get rid of the tightness in the muscles. This is essentially the best you can do after an intense workout. Speaking of which, it’s the tightness of the muscle that can lead to injury in the future. That means you’ll have to warm up for longer the next day because your muscles remained stiff the previous day.
It helps eliminate lactic acid
If you’re a bodybuilder, for example, you’d usually go to the gym to have a “pump”. For those who don’t know, a pump is basically the feeling of having sore yet big muscles due to the workout. This feeling is caused by the build-up of lactic acid in the muscles. Although lactic acid is essential for muscle growth, having too much of it can damage the muscles. That’s why you need to find a way to get rid of excess lactic acid immediately. And that can be done simply through stretching!
Stretching will give you more flexibility
When talking about stretching, there’s already no argument that it can improve flexibility. If you get used to stretching, not only will you have a better range of motion, you’ll also have greater strength. It will be easier to bend, squat, and other related movements. That means it will also be easier for you to lift certain weight without worry about injury. If you’re flexible enough that your body can support any type of movement, you can also be just as strong.