If you want to keep your muscles flexible and strong, it is important to incorporate stretching exercises into your daily routine. Adding specific stretches enhances muscle flexibility and helps prevent stiffness and deterioration.
Many research studies suggest that stretching movements play an essential role in the following:
- Keeping joints flexible.
- Maintaining their full range of motion.
- Making your muscles work efficiently.
- Enhancing performance in various types of physical and sports activities.
- Increasing blood flow to your muscles.
5 Best Stretches To Do Every Day For Better Flexibility
Important Stretches
There are various types of stretching movements you can do. Whereas some stretching exercises you can add to your morning routine, others you can do after a workout to relax and recover your muscles.
Amongst different types of stretching exercises, the most common and important are:
- Dynamic Stretches.
- Static Stretches.
Read on for the five best stretching exercises you must do daily to increase your muscles’ flexibility while keeping them strong.
Best Stretching Exercises For Everyday
# 1
Head-to-knee forward bend
This is one of the best static stretches that work on your posture, stretch your spine and hamstrings, and provide a good stretch to your groin, back, and calves.
How To?
- Sit on an exercise mat. Extend your right leg out in front. Bend your left knee and place the sole of your left foot on your right inner thigh.
- Now lift your hands over your head. Then, bending at your hips, lean forward over your right leg while lengthening your spine.
- Reach your hands on the floor or your right foot. You may try to clasp your hands around the right foot and hold the stretch for a few seconds. Then, come back up and repeat on the other side.
- Do this exercise an equal number of times on both sides.
# 2
Static Standing lunge
Standing lunges are one of the most effective static stretches targeting the glutes and quads. This stretch also targets the psoas and hip flexor muscles, helping to offset the harmful effects of prolonged sitting.
How To:
- Position your left foot forward and right foot straight back. Bend your left knee at a 90-degree angle and place your hands on your left knee.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders back and down.
- Now press down on your left leg with your hands and drive your hips forward until you feel a stretch in your hip and thigh on the right side.
- Hold the stretch. Switch sides and repeat the stretch.
- Do this exercise an equal number of times on both sides.
Standing lunges stretch the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings.
# 3
Chest and shoulder stretch
This is another effective example of a static stretch. You can do it as soon as you wake up in the morning and get out of bed, or even after a chest and shoulder main workout.
This stretch can improve flexibility in the upper body and alleviate tightness and pain that may occur due to an improper sleeping position.
How To:
- Sit or stand with your back straight, clasping your hands behind you.
- Slowly raise your hands towards the ceiling until you feel a gentle stretch in your chest and shoulder muscles.
- Hold the stretch for a few seconds, then lower your hands.
- Repeat the movement a few times.
# 4
Wall Calf Stretch
An excellent static stretching exercise for the calves. This stretch helps increase flexibility in the legs and alleviate lower-body stiffness. This stretching exercise helps alleviate muscle soreness and improve the long-term mobility, strength, and flexibility of the calves.
How To:
- Stand straight, a little less than arm’s distance away from the wall, facing it.
- Put your left foot forward with your knee bent. Then, place your right leg back with your knee straight, keeping your feet parallel.
- Rest your palms on the wall. Then, bend your left knee and press your palms against the wall, leaning forward until you feel a stretch in the calf muscle of your left leg.
- Hold the stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. Then, switch legs and repeat the movement. Perform the exercise an equal number of times on both sides.
# 5
Cobra Stretch
The cobra yoga pose is one of the most effective static stretching exercises, focusing on your back and stomach. Doing it daily helps ease back pain, opens the muscles in the shoulders and neck, improves blood circulation, and improves spinal posture.
How To:
- Lie flat on your stomach on an exercise mat with your hands under your shoulders on the mat, facing forward.
- Extend your legs straight behind you with your toes pointed straight. Now raise your chest as high as possible while pressing your palms and pushing your hips into the floor.
- Hold the stretch for 20 to 60 seconds, and then lower back down slowly.
The cobra pose opens the shoulders and chest muscles.
Check here: “How You Can Lose Weight Safely and Permanently”
Practicing the above stretching exercises will surely benefit you. By adding just ten minutes of stretching to your everyday routine, you can enhance your overall flexibility, relax your body, and develop better body posture.
About Author: Renu Bakshi, Best Fitness Guru, is an ISSA Certified Elite Trainer. He
passed Personal Fitness Trainer Course, Nutrition Health Coach course & Specialist Exercise Therapy course from ISSA, USA, obtaining + 97% marks. He shares his experience and knowledge about nutrition and effective workouts to get you in the best shape of your life, no matter how old you may be. The author says,” For me, age is just a number!”
