Stretching is something we often associate with athletes. However, everyone should partake in regular stretching, especially those who experience any type of pain or muscle tension.
Regular stretching helps keep your muscles strong, flexible, and healthy, which is essential for a good range of motion in our joints. Not stretching can cause your muscles to shorten and become tight. Then, when you want to use them to their full potential, your muscles may not be able to extend all the way, which can result in strains, muscle damage, and joint pain.
Studies have also found that circulation improves with regular stretching, which can help increase blood flow to your muscles and reduce muscles soreness.
Additionally, regular stretching helps to protect your joints. When you stretch through your full range of motion, you stimulate the production of synovial fluid. This fluid resides inside the joint’s lining and helps protect your cartilage, which is essential in absorbing shock and reducing friction between bones.
The Benefits of Assisted Stretching
Professionally assisted stretching offers many benefits compared to unassisted stretching or exercises such as yoga that emphasize stretching.
Address Targeted Areas
When you undergo professionally assisted stretching, you have a routine targeted to your own needs that assesses your current range of motion and helps to improve your overall well-being.
When stretching unassisted, you may push your body too much, which can cause injury to your body. This is especially apparent when beginning to stretch regularly, as your range of motion may not be very large. If you try to stretch and push your body further than it should, you could damage it and cause more harm.
Create a Habit
It’s hard to carve out time in our day to devote to stretching, and when stretching unassisted, it’s common to rush through a stretching routine or forego it entirely. When you schedule a professionally assisted stretching session, you schedule the time to stretch into your calendar, and that time is used solely to focus on what your body needs. There are also fewer interruptions with assisted stretching, as there are no kids, dogs, or other distractions surrounding you as you try to stretch.
Decrease Pain and Stiffness
We often have pain points and tight muscles in our bodies. A professional stretch therapist can evaluate these pain points and target them using specific stretching exercises, which helps to alleviate pain and stiffness. One beneficial method of stretching is spinal traction, which is a way to relieve pain by stretching and realigning the spine. This technique helps to separate the vertebrae and relieves direct nerve pressure.
Experience The Difference of Professionally Assisted Stretching
Stretching is something we often view as capable of doing from the comfort of our home, yet unassisted stretching may not target the areas of our bodies that need help, or we may push our bodies too far and cause additional damage.
At Stretch Authority, you will meet with a professional stretch therapist to create a comprehensive plan addressing any limitations in range of motion and pain points. Give us a call today at friends@stretchauthority.com and see the difference an assisted stretch offers your body.
References
Page P. (2012). Current concepts in muscle stretching for exercise and rehabilitation. International journal of sports physical therapy, 7(1), 109–119.
Hotta, K., Kamiya, K., Shimizu, R., Yokoyama, M., Nakamura-Ogura, M., & Tabata, M. et al. (2013). Stretching Exercises Enhance Vascular Endothelial Function and Improve Peripheral Circulation in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction. International Heart Journal, 54(2), 59-63. doi: 10.1536/ihj.54.59
Yang, H., & Yoo, W. (2014). The Effects of Stretching with Lumbar Traction on VAS and Oswestry Scales of Patients with Lumbar 4–5 Herniated Intervertebral Disc. Journal Of Physical Therapy Science, 26(7), 1049-1050. doi: 10.1589/jpts.26.1049
