Importance of stretching before weight lifting

“You must stretch!”

This is most likely a very common saying used by athletes, exercises and most especially weight trainers. They would have been told severally that increasing the flexibility of their muscle-tendon body part makes weightlifting and other exercises more efficient and may help to prevent injury or muscle soreness. This is a very crucial reason why stretching is often included in the warm-up and cool-down phases of exercise.

Even though Stretching before exercise is extremely common, it is very easy to overlook the benefits of stretching and take them for granted. Research has shown that stretching prior to exercise, including weightlifting, helps to improve the elasticity of the muscle, improve the circulation, strengthens muscle tone, and even prolong the workout duration.

Many experts recommend stretching both before and after weightlifting but we would focus majorly on the benefits of stretching before weightlifting.

1. It increases the Flow of Oxygen.

Stretching before lifting weights helps improves the flow of oxygen throughout your bloodstream. That way, your muscles receive enough oxygen and this would reduce the tightness, aches, pains, and even injury that you would have experienced while exercising and lifting weights.

2. It relieves Tight Muscles

Stretching alleviates tight and tense muscles especially hamstrings, which is one of the major causes of pain in both the knees and legs. You don’t have to do the complicate stretches, the simple 90-degree test pose is just alright; just pull one leg forward to your upper body. Gradually, as you gain more flexibility, your challenge would be how close you can pull your leg to your upper body.

3. Longer workouts

Stretching helps you to loosen the muscles and tendons, you are able to get relief from muscle fatigue. That is why this type of warm-up is advised to “awaken” the dormant areas in the body so that they can function just like before. This enables you to exercise and burn calories for a much longer period of time.

4. Prevent Muscle Soreness after Exercise

Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is when you get sore after an exercise session. Stretching before or after exercise has long been recommended as a way to reduce this soreness.

5. Injury Prevention

Your muscles are unable to elongate properly when there is a lack of oxygen supply to them, but if you stretch properly, there would an improvement in coordination and your muscles are less likely to experience any rip or tear.

There are several types of stretches to incorporate into a training routine. These include:

Static stretches – they are performed in specific positions for a stipulated amount of time. They are performed between workouts to help release muscle tension.

Dynamic stretches – these are done while moving through positions while maintaining a comfortable range of motion. They help to improve the range of mobility both in sports and daily life.

Passive stretching – this uses an external force, such as your own body weight, a stretching device, etc. It helps the muscles relax while the external force holds you in place.

Active stretching – here, you actively contract a muscle in opposition to the one being stretched. The opposing muscle feels the stretch, while the muscle being stretched actually gets relaxed.

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