An inch longer is an inch stronger. How can you stretch to be healthier?

There is an old saying that "an inch longer tendon means ten years longer life", and many people are deeply touched by this. As we age, the flexibility of our limbs gradually deteriorates, and our arms and legs become "stiff". Perhaps this is why we can see that whether it is yoga, which continues to be popular among urban beauties, or various fancy stretching styles that are popular among sedentary people, they all point to the same health goal: stretching the tendons. So, is stretching really good for our health? Are there any misunderstandings and blind spots in our understanding of stretching?

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01

The stiffness of the limbs is a warning from the body:

"If you don't exercise, you'll get rusty!"

Yoga, Pilates and other sports enthusiasts feel that through continuous stretching exercises, while achieving body shaping, their bodies are also healthier than before. However, some people scoff at this, believing that stretching has nothing to do with promoting physical health. So, what is the actual situation?

Before we figure out this question, we must first know what body flexibility is. Body flexibility refers to the range of motion and stretching ability of joints, muscles, and tendons in our body, and is one of the most direct indicators of physical health. Poor body flexibility is mainly the result of degenerative decline in the range of motion of various joints and muscle strength caused by long-term lack of exercise. In other words, when you feel that your body has become "stiff", this is a warning from the body to us, telling us to maintain or improve various body functions through exercise.

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Stretching exercises are an important means of improving and developing flexibility and are suitable for everyone. Many stretching exercises use one's own weight as the exercise weight, so they are very suitable for women and children who have no exercise experience and are weak as an important exercise method to improve the flexibility and strength of various bones and joints such as the limbs, cervical vertebrae, and lumbar vertebrae.

02

Stretching immediately after physical exercise

Not only relieve pain but also reduce the risk of sports injuries

For people who regularly participate in physical exercise, we recommend stretching exercises as an essential means of relaxing muscles after exercise. If conditions permit, try to stretch every day.

Because, by stretching we can maintain the flexibility of muscles and joints and reduce the possibility of sports risks. Studies have shown that the blood lactate concentration and muscle soreness of the stretching group after exercise decreased significantly compared with the non-stretching group, but the muscle isometric strength increased significantly. This shows that stretching immediately after exercise will effectively promote blood circulation and redistribution. Although the soreness after exercise still exists for a short period of time, it has a good effect on relieving fatigue, local soreness and excessive muscle tension after exercise.

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Since stretching is so good, can we stretch for a longer time each time? Studies have shown that the effect of stretching for more than half an hour is not significantly better than stretching for 10 minutes. On the contrary, it will increase the risk of overstretching joints and ligaments due to excessive stretching time. We recommend that each stretching action should be done for 30 seconds to 60 seconds after exercise, 1-2 times, and the total stretching time for various actions should be about 10 minutes.

03

Daily stretching exercises

Five points to keep in mind

In the process of daily stretching exercises, the following aspects need your attention:

First of all, do not hold your breath during static stretching. Instead, coordinate stretching with breathing. When stretching, use more deep, slow breathing to gradually calm our nerves.

Secondly, when stretching, you should keep your posture stable, and don't rely on shaking left and right or using inertia to increase the stretching range. For example, when we do sit-and-reach, violently shaking forward and other inertial stretching movements can easily cause partial overstretching of the body and increase the risk of sports injuries.

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Third, many people believe that stretching will only be effective if it causes local pain, which is also wrong. When our body feels pain during stretching, it is actually the body telling us that there is a problem. At this time, we should stop stretching immediately and find out the cause of the pain. If you insist on continuing to stretch, it is easy to aggravate the injury.

Fourth, the longer the static stretching time is, the better. Generally speaking, according to the condition and needs of each part of the body, static stretching can be performed for 30 seconds to 3-5 minutes for each movement, and 3-5 times is appropriate. The total time for static stretching of various movements can be controlled within 20-30 minutes.

Fifth, you should not stretch where you exercise, but the stretching exercise should be whole body. It is especially important to stretch symmetrically, that is, we should stretch both sides, not just one side.

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Author: Wu Dongming, Associate Researcher, National Physical Fitness Research Center, Institute of Sports Science, General Administration of Sports of China

Review | Sun Biao, Professor of Nanjing Institute of Physical Education

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