How long has it been since you worked on your flexibility and mobility? If it has been a while, now is the time to start again. After cardio and strength workouts, you must be taking your protein shakes. But what about stretching?
Think of a cold rubber or elastic band. If you put too much strain on it, it will snap. This explains why mobility is necessary when you exercise. If you’re constantly working on your muscles, they will contract and become shorter. This is called adaptive shortening.
Stretching will help you lengthen your muscles, prevent tightness, and increase your recovery time. With mobility workouts, you can make your muscles more pliable. For lasting results, try the exercises in this guide and find affordable fitness classes in NYC with FitEngine.
Two Ways of Stretching
Stretching will help you improve the range of motion of your joints. It also boosts performance, assists good posture, reduces the risk of injuries, and relaxes your muscles. It can get a little confusing because there are different ways you can stretch.
Stretching can help you warm up your body for exercise, help your body recover post-workout, or help you with relaxation or flexibility. If you know what you want, you can easily choose a stretching routine.
Active Stretch
This stretch involves stretched positions. For example, you can push your elbows together to stretch your chest. An active stretch aims to relax the muscles you want to stretch while contracting the opposing muscles. This initiates the stretch, and you can control the force. The risk of injury is also lower.
Passive Stretch
This is one step above active stretching. A passive stretch is beyond your control, and you have to rely on an external force (a therapist or object) to help you stretch. You have to relax the muscles you want to stretch and let the external force hold you. It doesn’t require much effort from you, but there is a risk of injury due to a strong force.
Types of Stretching
Most people already know of static stretches. They’re the most recognizable stretches, and everyone only uses them for flexibility training. However, even static stretching involves two different types of stretching—maintenance and developmental.
Static Maintenance
This is a great stretch for recovery and cool-down post-workout recovery. It also allows you to maintain your general flexibility even after exercising. Static maintenance helps you maintain flexibility so you don’t lose it. It helps offset or prevent adaptive shortening.
Maintenance stretching helps you reset your muscles and body after a workout. You can retain the natural posture and position. This form of static stretching reduces muscle tension, lessens muscle shortening, and helps post-workout aches.
Static stretches, in general, aren’t recommended for pre-workout and warming up. They tend to slow down your performance temporarily, and warm-up stretches help with boosting performance.
Static Developmental
Statis developmental stretches are great for improving or developing flexibility. They are also effective for post-workout recovery or cool-down. You can also try them during separate stretching sessions.
Static developmental stretches cover more movement. They help you overcome the stretch reflex, which is an automatic muscle contraction after stretches. It’s your body’s defense mechanism that prevents injury due to over-stretching. You have to overcome this gently without overstretching your muscles.
Developmental static stretching is pretty time-consuming, so you can try it for really tight muscles. Don’t force this stretch. Ensure you’re only doing it if you want to improve your flexibility—whether during a stretching session or after a warm-up exercise.
Dynamic Stretching (Mobility Training)
Dynamic stretches differ from static stretches because they are great for warming up. Mobility training helps you improve performance while reducing the risk of injury. You’re increasing your flexibility by using movement.
This type of stretching warms up your joints, reduces muscle tension, and maintains current flexibility. Dynamic stretches prepare your body for workouts. You can also rehearse the movements you’ll be performing in the coming workout. You can start with leg swings, standing waist twists, or overhead reaches.
Ballistic Stretching
This is a faster and more explosive way of stretching, only for pros. Ballistic stretching is similar to dynamic stretching but brings a greater risk of injury. It utilizes jerking and bouncing movements which aren’t recommended for beginners or someone who doesn’t need it.
Sports like springing, gymnastics, kickboxing, and fencing use large ranges of rapid movements. Simply put, these sports are ballistic. Hence, anyone participating in these sports needs to include ballistic stretching in their training. Otherwise, it can cause serious injuries due to the chosen sport.
The bottom line? Don’t try ballistic stretching unless you’re a pro. You’re not used to rapid and heavy movements. You can stick to dynamic stretches, which have the same benefit without the risk of injuries.
To learn more about flexibility mobility workouts, check us out at FitEngine. We have several blogs for fitness and exercise. You can also find affordable fitness and yoga classes in NYC on our website. For pilates, stretching, yoga classes, and dancing classes in NYC, you can check the schedule here.
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