We can observe how passionate athletes when it comes to stretching. They even start their training with some stretching. Even as we start our exercises with some stretching or even starting our day with some stretching. Indeed, stretching has been part of our life.

Also, we may notice that stretching can be used to get relief from musculoskeletal conditions due to injury.  For today, we will highlight the role of active stretching in injury prevention. And, we’ll give your 5 reasons why it’s crucial to prevent an injury.

To create a clearer picture of what’s active stretching, let’s define it and compare it with passive stretching.

What’s an Active Stretching?

Active stretching means that you assume a specific position and then hold it with no external forces or assistance other than by using your own strength of your agonist’s muscle. The agonist’s muscles are plays an important role in producing a targeted movement through a contraction.

With this type of stretching, your one muscle group is actively moving to stretch the other muscles. This can be completed without any partner or stretching accessories – in simple terms a plain stretching with no external force needed. One example is a back flexion stretch.

In general, we can observe active dynamic stretches as warm-up exercises.

What’s a Passive Stretching?

If active stretching doesn’t need any external forces, it’s the other way around for passive stretching. It’s a type of stretching where you assume a position but you need to have a partner or some stretching equipment to assist you. An example which is shown below is stretching your legs with resistance bands.

Passive static stretching is ideal in improving flexibility and to be used as a cool-down exercise.

Top 5 Reasons Why Active Stretching is Crucial in Injury Prevention

We will be highlighting to you why active stretching is important to prevent injury especially when you’re an athlete. We’re how competitive your world is.

Please take note that stretching cannot directly prevent the injury but it can help in decreasing the risk of injury.  And below are the main reasons:

1.Active stretching can release tension and helps in improving muscle flexibility.

It helps in retraining the muscles to fully relax.  By having much more flexible muscles, you can able to maintain a certain range of motion within your joints.

Take in mind that if your muscles are not flexible enough, you get some restrictions while moving this is because your muscles shorten and it became tight. Without flexibility, your muscle will become weak which will put you at the risk of injury – you’ll be prone to joint pain, strains, and muscle injuries. For example, if you’re playing a sport and haven’t done some stretching when you stretched you may end up having muscle and joints pain.

As you do active stretching regularly, you can do better and effective stretches over time.  Thus, it can help you to avoid the risk of getting muscle injury in the future.

2. Doing some active stretching can help you strengthen your opposing muscles.

Helping it to improve in terms of extensibility. Also, by doing so, it can help you to minimize the wear and tear on your joints.

3. Active stretch will allow you to assume a specific position and hold it based on your current muscle strength.

It will not go beyond it. As mentioned earlier, it will only use your own muscle contraction. Therefore, you have a lower risk of getting an injury, but as time goes by it will help improve your muscle strength.

4. With your improvement in your muscle strength and flexibility, you can able to improve your performance.

Thus, it’s an ideal part of your daily warm-up. After all, all types of stretching have one major goal and which is to improve performance. Also, active stretching, it can help your muscles to improve its performance.

Regular stretching techniques can improve the overall function of the body.

5. Active stretching can help your body in increasing blood flow within your muscles.

With better circulation means that more oxygen is going into your muscles. Also, better circulation means that your overall health is improving. This implies that you can even do more without experiencing any pain or have a lower risk of getting an injury.

Proper Execution is the Key

Just knowing how to do an active stretch and its benefits are not enough. In order for you to see its effectiveness, it’s essential that you know how to do it properly. You must perform it gently to avoid injuries.

Prepare your Body

Before stretching any muscles, it’s vital that you take some 5 to 10 minutes of light activities first like walking. It will help you in preparing your muscles. Doing light activities at first can help in the circulation of your blood to your muscles – making the muscles to be more limber and be lesser prone to straining or injuries.

Be mindful

When it comes to active stretching, you always need to listen to your body.  You must know your limits and don’t go beyond it. As a general rule, you may never experience any discomfort or any more than mild discomfort.

Also if you noticed that you are still struggling even you have already done the stretching many times – it’s a sign that you are pushing beyond your limits.

Always do it gradually, as your flexibility improves, you may slowly increase your reach.

Just Relax

Breathe into the stretch and extend further with exhalation. You must relax the muscle group that you’re currently working on. Keep on this phase, you will notice the improvements and it can help to loosen up your muscle tightness.

Stretching within a day, will not provide you instant flexibility, always remember that it’s a cumulative effort. So, you need to do it properly to get great results. It may take a week or even months to be flexible.

Need Help With Injury Prevention?

Evergreen Rehab and Wellness, will not only help you in relieving your pain but will help you to strengthen your body to avoid the risk of getting an injury.

We have skilled health Professionals that can help you. Our Licensed Physiotherapists and Kinesiologists will design a customized program to help you in preventing injuries or can simply help you with personal training.

Book Online Today.

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