Stretching for results

Having flown home for 13 hours yesterday with 2 young daughters, I had a touch of jetlag to say the least!
Not just that, but my body felt it had been squashed into a tiny box for most of the journey, and my notoriously tight calves felt like concrete for the next 24hours! Suffice to say my plantar fasciatis reared it's head again for a few hours afterwards.

If you have tight muscles, not only will you be affecting your posture, but you could also be hampering your results.

Ladies - are you continuously trying to firm up your bottom, and give it a better shape, but the only things that seem to change are your legs? This could well be down to the fact you may have tight hip flexors, located at the top of your thigh, connecting to your hip. When tight, these muscles will inhibit your glutes from working correctly, and will therefore limit your potential for results.

Men - Struggling to get a decent shape to your back? Well, if you bench press too much, and have tight pectorals, your shoulders will round forward giving you a stooped look, and inhibiting your back muscles from firing correctly.

If you stretch occasionally when you go to the gym, you really are cheating yourself from results! Ideally, look to stretch any tight muscle groups, 3-4 times a days for around 30seconds each stretch. If you're working out, stretch the tight Opposing muscle between sets. Ie if you're performing Deadlifts, and extension exercise, and you have tight hip flexors, stretch them between sets.

NOTE: It has been found that stretching a muscle, prior to using it in an exercise can actually have a detrimental effect on the exercise, and the power output will be decreased. An example would be stretching the pecs before performing a pressup.

In summary;

Perform dynamic, movement based stretches prior to working out.

Perform static stretches on any tight muscles before working the opposing muscle.

Perform static stretches, 3-4 times a day for 30secs each on tight muscles during the day

Perform static stretches on all tight muscles after a workout.