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Stretch Your Way to Fitness

Of the basic components of physical fitness, stretching seems to be the one that is most often neglected. Nobody seems to have the time or patience to keep with a regular stretching program, because by the time they finish their weight training and cardio programs, they are beat and just want to hit the showers and go home.

Jump down to the pictures and stretches.

Why Stretch?

It is very important to develop and maintain some sort of stretching regimen because weight training tightens muscles. You don't have to be a muscular beast either in order to experience the tightening effects of weight training (or any type of exercise, rather). When you weight train, you incur tiny tears in your muscles. During the course of around 24-73 hours, your body works at repairing those muscle tears, resulting in muscles that are a bit larger, stronger, and tighter. Incorporating stretching into your routine will help fend away muscle tightness, and even improve your flexibility (provided the stretches are done long enough and often enough).

Additionally, stretching may be beneficial in helping build more muscle mass. In theory, stretching can make the fascial encasements around muscle fibers less restricting. This means that muscle growth will be easier. Another reason to stretch is the possibility of hyperplasia, an increase in the number of muscle cells. More muscle cells mean more growth capacity. While this hasn't been proven in humans yet, it has been successfully done with animals. Scientists also believe that stretching a muscle increases the number of anabolic receptors on it and initiates the release of good prostaglandin's, which may enhance muscle growth tremendously.

Some other reasons to stretch include reducing muscle tension and making you feel more relaxed, preventing injuries such as muscle strains, and helping you better develop body awareness.

When to Stretch

Your muscles are most pliable when they are warm (and fatigued). Therefore, it is always best to perform any kind of stretch after some sort of initial warm up, or even after your exercise routine altogether, when the muscles are too tired to resist your attempts at stretching them.

Chest: T-Stretch

Instructions: While standing, extend arms out to your sides until they are parallel to the floor. Slowly, bring them back as far as you can and hold for 5-10 second.

Back: One-arm Lat Stretch

Instructions: With one arm extended, grab onto something and tug back until you feel a stretch in your lats. Hold for 5-10 seconds.

Lats: Dead Hang

Instructions: Hang from a pull-up bar and feel a good stretch in your lats and your whole back.

Shoulder and Biceps

Instructions: Position yourself in the center of a doorway. Grab onto both ends of the doorframe and while keeping your feet in place, let your body come forward until you feel a stretch in your shoulders.

Triceps: One-arm Tricep Stretch

Instructions: With one of your arms bent behind your head so your elbow is facing towards the ceiling, pull towards the opposite arm until a stretch is felt in the triceps.

Quads: One-leg Back Stretch

Instructions: While standing, grab one of your feet and bring it behind you as far as possible until you feel a deep stretch in your quad and hold.

Hamstrings: Seated Leg Stretch

Instructions: While sitting, extend one or both legs and while keeping your back straight, lean forward as far as you can so you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and hold for a few seconds.

For more stretches for specific body parts, see Bodybuilding.com's stretch section.