Stretches for your workout routine
Want to stay limber and pain-free as you age? If so, your workout routine should include stretches for flexibility. Building flexibility exercises into your workout routine is important, as it can help you get more out of each sweat session and avoid injury too.
To help you do all that, the following slides offer eight key stretches from the book “Fitness After 40” by Dr. Vonda Wright, a double board-certified orthopedic sports medicine surgeon specializing in shoulder, hip and knee arthroscopy for athletes and active people of all ages. These stretches can be useful for people of all ages, though. And there’s certainly no minimum age for staying flexible.
Why stay flexible?
Flexibility is the ability of muscle to lengthen and allow your joints to move through a full range of motion. Maintaining muscle flexibility increases athletic performance, improves running economy (energy expenditure at a given speed), prevents injury, decreases soreness and hastens rehabilitation following injury.
Wright says “we can think of working out like continued maintenance on our body, like a car, they’re scheduled maintenance. When we’re working out, we are building a big cardiovascular engine. But in the meantime, we’re also building lean muscle mass and keeping our joints moving smoothly.”
What happens when you stretch?
Our tendons and muscles contain collagen, which is a structural protein responsible for holding together our musculoskeletal system. Collagen also helps with skin elasticity and hair and nail strength, and it’s also sold as a beauty or workout supplement.
In our muscles and tendons, Wright says that “with time, the collagen bundles become more and more tightly bound together, so they don’t stretch or move as much. If we just let that happen, without including stretching in our total body workout, what we’ll find is that we’ll start losing range of motion and our joints.”
And stretching for fitness has benefits beyond just improving your workout routine. Neglecting this important part of your body’s maintenance can have effects on parts of your body that you might not even realize.
“What I find as an orthopedic surgeon is that if we don’t continually stretch our hamstrings and our quadriceps and our calf muscles, sometimes people start walking with bent knees, which completely throws off their whole gait pattern,” warns Wright.
Sometimes, tight muscles combined with uneven movement patterns can cause pain in other places on the body. “If you walk with bent knees and the front of your knees start to hurt, then you don’t really engage your glute muscles or your rear end and then get low back pain. That’s only one example of how we can change our range of motion by not just doing the maintenance of stretching,” Wright says.
How to start stretching
Once you work up to it, you must stretch every day for 15 minutes. If morning doesn’t work for you, take 45 minutes at lunch instead of an hour and use the other 15 to stretch. You can break the stretching regimen up over the course of the day and do one body part at a time.
For people under 65 years old, maximum benefit is achieved with a slow muscle stretch until the muscle feels tight but doesn’t hurt. Once you reach this place, hold the stretch for 30 seconds without bouncing.
“If you hold it for 30 seconds such that what people will feel as you as you’re getting to 20 seconds, you’ll notice you can get more of a stretch. You’ll relax, and you’ll ease into it,” says Wright.
After 30 seconds, rest for 10 seconds and then repeat the stretch for a maximum of four repetitions. If you’re older than 60, research shows you need to hold the stretch for 60 seconds. This is because as you age, the collagen in your muscles and tendons becomes more tightly bonded, and it takes a longer stretch to get that same release and relaxation.
It takes about six weeks of consistent stretching to see good results. Then, you must maintain your muscle length by continuing daily stretches. If you’re excited to get started with a new stretching routine, the following eight essential stretches for your workout will help you become more flexible and achieve better workout results.
1. Seated trapezius stretch
1. Turn your chin to the right and toward your chest.
2. Place your right hand over the top of your head, and gently pull your head down toward the right. You’ll feel a stretch in your left trapezius, and if you touch the left side of your neck with your left hand, you’ll feel the tight muscle being stretched. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds, and then relax. Repeat this stretch four times, remembering to breathe.
3. Switch chin direction to the left. Place your left hand over the top of your head and gently pull down to stretch your right side.
2. Shoulder stretch
1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart.
2. Raise your right arm up to shoulder height, and move it across the front of your body.
3. With your left arm, pull the right arm as close to your chest as possible and hold it for 30 seconds. You should feel the stretch across the back of your shoulder. Repeat this four times, then switch to the left side.
3. Triceps stretch
1. With your feet shoulder width apart, raise your right arm straight up and over your head.
2. Bend your elbow so that your right hand is reaching for your left shoulder.
3. Use your left hand to press back on your right elbow. You will feel a great stretch in the back of your arm and upper shoulder.
4. Hold for 30 seconds, and repeat four times on each side.
4. Lower back
1. Begin on your knees.
2. Place your hands in front of you on an exercise ball or the seat of a chair.
3. While keeping your back flat, reach forward with your arms and lower your buttocks to your feet. You’ll feel a stretch along the sides of your back.
4. Hold for 30 seconds, while breathing, then relax. Repeat four times.
5. Next, place your hands shoulder width apart on the ground. It will look as if you’re crawling.
6. Gently arch your back toward the ceiling, and tuck your buttocks in. Hold and repeat four times. After the last arch, lower your buttocks to your heels with your arms stretched out in front, and let your back relax.
5. Hip flexor stretch in 3 planes
1. Start by standing with feet together.
2. Step forward onto the right leg while keeping your knee aligned above your ankle and your hips forward.
3. Raise both of your hands above your head as you lean forward. You should feel a gentle stretch in the front of your back leg.
4. Then, lean toward the right leg, and raise your left arm over your head. The stretch will move to include your left side as well as the front of your back leg.
5. Finally, raise your left arm above your body, and twist it to behind your body. This opens up the left side of your body.
6. Hold each position for 30 seconds, and then switch legs and repeat all three positions four times.
6. Hamstring stretch
1. Lie down with the small of your back against the floor.
2. Bend your left knee to 90 degrees to stabilize your hips.
3. Slowly raise your right leg off the ground with the knee as straight as possible. Your right hip should not rise off the floor, and the motion should come only from your hip.
4. As your foot approaches vertical, you’ll feel a stretch in the back of your leg.
5. Hold your leg in this raised position for 30 seconds.
6. After 30 seconds, relax your knee and then repeat three times before switching to the left.
7. Quadriceps stretch
1. Stand with feet together and hips straight.
2. Bend your right knee back and take the front of your right foot in your right hand.
3. Keeping your knees even — do not let your right knee swing forward — bend your right knee back. You will feel a stretch in the front of your leg from above your hip to your knee. Do not allow your posture to curve forward, but keep standing straight up.
4. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, and then relax.
5. Repeat this four times, and then switch to the left quad.
8. Calf stretch
1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands against a chair or a wall.
2. Keep your heels on the floor and your knees straight while leaning into the chair or wall. You’ll feel this stretch down the back of your lower legs.
3. Hold for 30 seconds.
4. Then bend your knees and continue leaning in.
5. Hold with bent knees for 30 seconds, then repeat with straight and bent knees four times.
Excerpted from “Fitness After 40: How to Stay Strong at Any Age” by Vonda Wright, MD, with Ruth Winter, MS.
Take your stretch to the next step.
One recent trend that you may have noticed is stretching done by professionals. Like other workout classes, locations will offer 30-minute or hour-long stretch sessions, where you’re guided through a series of stretches. While Wright notes that for generations, many people have stretched on their own and been successful at keeping their bodies healthy, there’s potential benefit to these guided stretch sessions.
“There, you have a skilled person putting you through the range of motion and assuring you that what you’re feeling is normal. I have patients that go and find it can be very beneficial.”
If you’re questioning whether a stretch feels right or trying to determine whether what you’re feeling is an injury or a stretch, being guided by a professional might help. Just like a personal trainer might help you learn to lift weights, these guided stretch practices might help improve your at-home stretching.
8 stretches for better flexibility:
— Seated trapezius stretch.
— Shoulder stretch.
— Triceps stretch.
— Lower back.
— Hip flexor stretch in three planes.
— Hamstring stretch.
— Quadriceps stretch.
— Calf stretch.
More from U.S. News
A Guide to Exercise After Surgery
5 Tips for Warming Up Before a Workout
Best Exercises for Preventing Falls in Older Adults
Flexibility: Essential Stretches for Your Workout originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 02/28/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
