Exercise programs

When people begin an exercise program, the emphasis is often placed on and strength training workouts. However, there is another aspect to exercise that is often overlooked, but offers numerous benefits including improved physical performance and decreased risk of injury. This category of exercise is known as flexibility training, which is used to help your joints achieve a full range of motion. This type of exercise is essential in keeping your body loose, flexible and injury-free. Find out how and why to incorporate flexibility training into your daily exercise regimen.

Whether you are new to the gym or a seasoned athlete, flexibility training will be beneficial to you. Flexibility exercises, which mostly consist of a variety of stretches, can enhance physical performance, reduce your risk of injury, decrease soreness in the muscles and improve posture. Series of stretches can also increase the amount of blood and nutrients that gets to your tissue, which allows the essential tissues of your body greater elasticity and improved performance. There are plenty of good reasons to add a flexibility program to your workout routine.

In the majority of exercise programs, flexibility training consists of a sequence of stretches that will gently extend the muscles to allow for a greater range of mobility. There are a number of different types of stretches that can be used in the program for maximum benefit. The first is the static stretch, which involves moving slowly into a stretch and then holding it for a short period of time. Ballistic stretching is used to force a limb beyond the normal range of motion, using the momentum of movement. Dynamic stretching is the process of using swinging motions to bring the limbs to a full range of motion. Flexibility training can use a single type of stretch that will slowly work all of the major joints and muscles of the body, or it can use a combination of stretching techniques in a single workout.