Flexibility Development Guidelines

The ability to move your joints through their full 
range is an asset that can be maintained throughout
life. As a child, you`re naturally flexible, but as you
age, flexibility tend to decrease.

Disuse, injury, excessive body fat, and muscle
imbalance are common factors in this loss of range
of motion. You can maintain youthful flexibility by
incorporating stretching into your regular workouts.

The following guidelines can help you achieve a
good balance of flexibility.


# Warm up before stretching: An increase in muscle
temperature produced by fast walking, slow jogging,
jumping jacks, or other large muscle exercise will
make stretching safer and more productive. You`re
sufficiently warmed up when you begin to sweat.


# After warm-up, use stretching as preparation for activity:
While some feel that stretching during warm-up
decreases risk of injury in the activity that follows,
there is no evidence that this is true.


Warm up stretching is different from planned program
of stretching for general flexibility. Warm-up stretching
can be limited to what is essential, avoiding overstretching.
Stretch muscle groups used in the activity, hold at
the point of tension for 5 to 10 seconds, and do not
push for flexibility increases. Any gains will be minimal
due to the tightening effect of the workout that follows.


# Stretch for flexibility during cool-down: Muscles
are warmest and more elastic at this point. Stretching
is easier. More permanent changes in muscle lengthening
occur with low-force, long-duration stretching if muscles
are allowed to cool in a stretching position.


Cooling muscles before releasing tension apparently
causes muscle collagen - the connective tissue, like
stretched taffy, to stabilize toward its new stretched length.


# Stop at the point of tension, not pain: Stretching
to the point of pain, or until muscles quiver can risk
overstretching injury.


# Don`t bounce: A sustained stretch is more effective.


# Incorporate 8 to 12 stretches into your program:
Since flexibility is specific to a joint, a well-planned
program for general flexibility will contain one stretch
for each major muscle group. Warm-up or cool-down
stretching may contain fewer exercises because such
stretching is activity specific and has different goals.


Pay particular attention to body areas that are least
flexible and stretch them more often.


# Strive for muscle balance: When stretching muscle
on one side of a joint, stretch those on the other side
as well; for example, if you stretch the right leg, stretch
the left leg, too.

''Success is the sum of small efforts,repeated
day in and day out''
Robert Collier.