Month: May 2012

Stretching doesn’t have to be as difficult and as painful as most have come to expect. It really is an essential part of any and every lifestyle. I say that because it really doesn’t matter if you are an arm chair athlete or highly trained in a specific sport, stretching helps everybody maintain a functional healthy musculoskeletal system. This is particularly important because as we live longer lives, thanks to medical science, we need to maintain our functional abilities and stay as independent as possible and keep our bodies moving.

Often I have conversations with clients about how much, or in reality, how little they stretch. I often try to keep perspective and reflect back on my own methods to incorporate stretching into my exercise routines and recovery days. I’ve come up with a simple plan that I think most people could relate to and I promote it as often as I have stretching conversations.

Here’s my take on stretching:

1. Ignore the suggestions made in health magazines that you NEED to stretch after exercise. Ignore the suggestions that stretching before exercise isn’t good because your muscles are “cold” or not warmed up.
2. Instead stretch whenever you feel the need to. My philosophy is centred around stretching anytime which is better than not at all.
3. Begin with a muscle group that is problematic or particularly tight, i.e., pectoralis (chest) muscles, that may be short and tight because of poor posture.
4. Stretch at the water cooler, while waiting for the subway, or better yet while WATCHING T.V.! You’re just sitting around anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone?
5. Muscles are either short and tight or long and tight. Stretch the short and tight ones.
6. Often people feel pain in a particular area of their body, i.e., upper back muscles between the shoulder blades. If you feel pain in your upper back think about the muscles that oppose them. Your pain may be caused by muscle and soft tissue length imbalances, so stretch your chest muscles instead. This reestablishes a length balance between agonist/antogonist muscle groups.
7. Stretch problem muscles FIRST and multiple times per day. Stretch other muscles as they need it or as they fit into your exercise routines.
8. Don’t get overwhelmed by stretching for 20-30 minute sessions per day. That’s just plain ridiculous! If you stretch periodically, say 2 minutes at a time starting with a problem muscle group FIRST, you will notice results without the unrealistic idea of stretching for prolonged periods of time. Who does that anyway? Maybe professional athletes do like goalies and that’s because they get paid to do it!

Plain and simple…try it!

 

So I want to share a few thoughts about hydration in general and then a few specific tips for those individuals that are more active than the average person.

I was reading in the Toronto Star about a week ago about a study that claimed students perform better on exams when properly hydrated. The study included a test group of 1st year students who typically arrived for exams without water and compared their results to older, year 3 and 4 students who typically brought water to their exams. The results indicated approximately 4.2 % increase in test scores for those year 3 and 4 students. Furthermore, students expressed the effects of drinking water during tests as: having a break in a bottle, feelings of being refreshed and that they were able to think more clearly. Unfortunately, I can’t find the link but if you’re wondering how it might improve your mental focus and energy levels, try consuming more water daily.

I think this article really made me think that many people are really walking around dehydrated. When the body is dehydrated you might feel thirsty but you’re also more likely to feel fatigued, less focused and hold more muscle tension. Most of these effects are scientifically proven somewhere but I’m not going to go there. If you want to search that information out then you know, use Google.

To get to my point, try consuming more water and document how you feel each day. Note feelings of fatigue-less vs. more, mental focus, and consider how your body is working or how tense your muscles feel.

If you are an active individual, then consider how well muscles perform when you are well hydrated and think about drinking more water daily to improve performance, but then make sure that before the big event you are consuming water 1 week prior to the event especially if you are running a marathon. And remember that every time you drink coffee, tea, or alcohol they all have diuretic effects, so drink a glass of water afterward.