Simple stretches you can do throughout the day (even during your lunch break)

One of the most effective strategies to maintain your muscles healthily is to stretch. Stretching regularly will help you retain muscle strength and flexibility.

When you have more flexibility, then the better it is for your joints! Keeping your muscles and joints in tip-top condition helps with a daily range of motion and can help protect against injury.

Although stretching has its benefits, there has been a shift in exercise theory regarding how and when it should be done. For years, experts have recommended stretching before playing sports or before exercising.

A recent study, however, reveals that stretching before a workout does not reduce the risk of injury. On the contrary, it is more important to warm up before exercising.

You should not confuse stretching with warming up. Your heart rate rises after a good warm-up. It will completely warm up the body due to increased blood flow and oxygen to the muscles.

Specifically, the warm-up should make you break a little sweat and stimulate the same muscles you'll use during your sport or activity. Save stretching for after the game or practice. 

While stretching has long been associated with exercise, stretching daily or a few times a week as an activity on its own can improve muscle and joint health.

Why do you need stretching?

Stretching is something spontaneous and natural that our body demands, but we tend to stretch little and don't spend enough time on it.

Imagine waking up in the morning, the first thing you probably do without thinking about is stretch your body. The stretch is instinctive, which means your body already drives you to do it. While this type of morning stretch is beneficial for you, focusing on more specific stretching throughout the day will offer the most benefit to your muscles and joints.

Stretching relaxes the body, it takes away the daily stress. In today's pace of life, there is often a lack of physical activity that makes us stiff, overweight, stressed, etc.

This is rarely considered a major problem when the reality is that it has a very negative influence on our body and mind.

On a normal day, you should stretch, especially if you have to maintain a particular position for a long time at work, sitting in front of the computer or television. Stretching, eliminating toxins, and restoring normal muscle tone are all crucial after physical activity.

We also improve the lubrication of the joints since they increase their production of synovial fluid. Through stretching, you get three benefits: prepare yourself for the activity to be carried out, recover from fatigue and relax. Incorporating it into your routine provides flexibility and decreases the risk of everyday injuries.

In addition, it helps reduce tension, increases efficient muscle movement, and can improve your posture.

Tips for better stretching

• Through stretching exercise, major muscle groups benefit. You can focus on the shoulders and neck, calves and thighs, hips, and lower back.

• Remember to breathe. Exhale as you begin the movement, and inhale while you hold the stretch.

• Try to stretch your body sides evenly.

• Hold the stretches for about 30 seconds.

• Use it or lose it. You will need to keep stretching if you want to maintain flexibility.

• Prevent bouncing throughout stretching.

Various stretches you can start today

There are many stretches you can start today:

1. Backstretch

Get down on the floor on your hands and knees in a quadruped position. Slowly roll your hips back and sit back on your heels. For its correct execution, the balls of the feet must be kept together and the knees must be separated approximately the width of the hips.

Next, stretch your arms forward and try to touch your forehead to the ground. You will feel how the entire spine is stretched, as well as the lower back, arms, shoulders, and hips. It also helps reduce stress and fatigue.

2. Spinal torsion

This type of torsion is very important for the spine since the movement that is carried out on it allows the vertebrae to oxygenate. Have a supine position (that is, lie on your back), raise your legs to 90 degrees, and bend your knees.

Rotate your hips to the right side and slowly drop your knees toward the floor. Open your arms crosswise and turn your torso to the same side, raising your left arm; hold the position for a few seconds. Return you're entire back to the ground and, without losing the angle of your legs, move your hips to the other side and repeat the stretch.

3. Hamstring stretch

Because the posterior leg muscles are prone to cutting, keeping them flexible is critical to avoiding knee and hip problems.

Sit on the floor with your legs fully extended and your back straight at a 90-degree angle with your body. Raise your arms in parallel and bring your weight forward trying to reach as far as possible or until you touch the tips of your feet, preferably bent towards the ceiling.

4. Cat and cow

This exercise is especially recommended to give mobility to the back, as well as to the lumbar muscles, which will guarantee to maintain a proper body posture. Get into a quadruped position and make sure your wrists are correctly aligned under your shoulders and your knees under your hips, open the same width.

Keep your back straight and your neck neutral. Inhaling, arch your back as you drop your abdomen down, lifting your chest and chin toward the ceiling, known as the 'cow' pose. Exhale tucking in your abdomen and rounding your spine with your chin toward your chest and gaze toward your abdomen., imitating the posture of a 'bristled cat'. Repeat the exercise for 10 deep breaths.

5. Psoas extension

The psoas (the muscle that joins the lower back with the legs) is one of the main stabilizers of the body and its shortening can cause significant back problems, so keeping it in shape is essential.

Take a forward stride with your right leg bent at the knee at a 90-degree angle, pulling your left leg back and resting it completely on the ground. Push your hips towards the ground keeping your back in a vertical position at all times, trying not to lean forward. Hold the pose for several deep breaths and switch legs.

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