6 Essential Stretches for a Woman’s Workout

Article by Flavia Del Monte

For a healthy workout, you can’t just lift weights. You need to include stretches for a woman’s workout. In fact, you should stretch half the amount of time you lift weights. So, if you lift weights five hours a week, you should stretch 2.5 hours a week.

The Repercussions of Not Stretching

Muscles naturally tighten up. And not stretching and loosening them up can have some serious repercussions. You increase your risk of injury. You’ll move slower, have decreased mobility, and have less power. Your muscle coordination and metabolism will suffer, and so will your performance.

Flexibility — One of the Four Main Components of Fitness

Stretching has numerous benefits. It reduces the amount of lactic acid and inflammation in your muscle tissue, while preventing muscle cramps. Most importantly, because stretching reduces your body’s automatic need to protect itself against overextension, it improves your flexibility. And the more flexible you are, the easier your muscles are able to move through the full range of motion. This increases your performance and reduces your risk of injury.

Tips for Stretching

There’s a lot more to stretching than just movement. First, you should never stretch cold muscles, so warm up a bit with five to ten minutes of low intensity exercise like walking or jogging. Then, stretch all the major muscle groups. Just make sure to stretch each side equally and focus on the major groups you’ll be using during your workout.

Don’t bounce while stretching your muscles. This will only cause unhealthy damage. Use slow, focused movements, gradually speeding up as you go. You should feel some tension as you move, but there shouldn’t be any pain. If it hurts, you’ve moved too far. Ease up on your position and hold it.

Ready for some good stretches?

Neck Stretch — Standing with your feet a comfortable width apart, tilt your head to the right and slightly forward. Then, with your right hand behind your head, gently pull down until you feel a gentle stretch on the left side of your neck. Hold it for half a minute and repeat the movement on the opposite side.

Shoulder Stretch — Shoulder stretches for a woman’s workout help you avoid issues like rotator cuff injuries. To stretch it out, bring your left arm over your body and hold your right arm either above or below your elbow. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat by brining your right arm over to hold your left.

Back Stretch — Called the “Cat and Camel”, start in the kneeling position, with your hands flat on the floor. Then, looking at the floor, let your tummy sag to the floor and your face turn to the ceiling, arching your back as far as you can. Then, do the opposite: Round your back by tightening the abdominals and lowering your head to the floor.

Hip Flexor Stretch– When doing stretches for a woman’s workout, don’t forget your upper thighs. Called a hip flexor, this muscle lifts your knees and helps when you bend at the waist. To stretch your hip flexor, place some padding on the floor and kneel on it with your right knee. Then, put your left foot in front of you. Shift your weight to your right thigh by leaning forward, holding your left leg with your left hand to hold yourself steady. Hold for 30 seconds, and repeat it on the other side.

Quad Stretch — To stretch your calf muscles, stand an arm’s length away from a wall or support. Put your right food behind your left foot and slowly bend your left leg, moving it forward. Keep your back and right knee straight, your hips forward, and your right heel straight and flat on the floor. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat it for the other side. If you need to deepen the stretch, bend your right knee slightly as you lean forward.

Hamstring Stretch — Sit flat on the floor with your legs straight out. Then, bend forward to reach ahead of you, while keeping your knees straight. Hold for ten seconds, relax, and repeat the motion.

It can be tempting to skip stretching, but you won’t save yourself any time. Stretches for a woman’s workout can improve your results and you might even do more harm than good.

Learn some great tips on how to do Quad stretches for a track and field meet in this free sports events, stretching, and preparation video clip. Expert: Jabari Pride Bio: Jabari Pride started running track in 1993. The summer before entering into college at the University of Wisconsin, Jabari competed at the Junior Olympics in Baton Rouge. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Find More Quad Stretches Articles

High Intensity Interval Training For Woman’s Fat Loss

Article by Chello Freaka

With regards to getting the most out of a good work out, intense interval training workouts can yield incredible results. When done right, you can achieve weight loss, muscle toning, increased strength, power, and much more.

What is high intensity interval training?

To put it simply, it’s incorporating periods of intense exercise into an otherwise low intensity workout. These periods (intervals) usually range between 15 to A minute. For instance, you are jogging on a treadmill at 8 minute mile pace. After 60 seconds, you run as hard as you can for 15 seconds. After that, you decide to go to the 8 minute mile pace, and the cycle going.

How do you know if high intensity interval training workouts is the right workout selection for you.

If you are looking to;

– slim down without losing muscle

– increase endurance

– shorten your workout without lessening your results

Another great advantage of HIIT is it enables you to work both your aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) systems. These means that it can benefit people looking to increase both explosiveness and endurance.

Important things to remember when you are performing interval training workouts.

– Eat something small , easily digestible (fiber or fruit work great) about Half an hour before your workout. Research indicates this to increase both the duration and intensity of workouts.

– Always warm up before your workout. This can greatly reduce the chance of an injury, mainly in terms of pulled muscles.

– When it comes time for your high intensity interval, give it your all. Remember, you simply need to keep it up for a small amount of time, so don’t restrain.

– Like with any workout, pay attention to the body. It is great to operate hard, but pay attention to anything unusual. An adequately performed interval training workout is going to be intense, and you are going to get tired. If you experience chest pains, or become light headed, cool off right away.

– If you wish to burn big calories, work your big muscles. Making use of your large muscles requires more energy, meaning burning more calories.

– Always cool off. A big mistake that lots of people make is they just stop once they think a workout is done. If you don’t did your cool down, your exercise routine isn’t complete. Intense interval training workouts demands a lot from your body, so it is very important that you should not let your heart rate to drop too quickly.

More High Intensity Strength Training Articles

Pregnant Woman’s Exercise Plan

Whether you were always fit or not, every woman should consider an exercise program while pregnant. After consulting your baby doctor, you should put together a program that works for you. Your body will be going through a lot of changes during the course of a pregnancy, it would be best to be prepared.

Your first step in an pregnancy exercise program is to decide how much you want to accomplish with the program. Are you continuing with a program that you had in place before you were pregnant? Is this a new exercise program that you have put in place just for your pregnancy? Answer this question and you will create a pregnancy exercise program.

The first part of any exercise plan is a stretching program. Gentle stretching exercises for your neck, shoulders, hips, arms, and legs should be done on a daily basis to keep your body limber. In addition, you should start a breathing program early on.

The exact stretching exercise for pregnancy can vary.

Pregnancy is a good time to begin a low impact exercise program. Yoga enthusiasts are always looking for new recruits. The program includes the breathing and stretching exercises that are part of an exercise plan. A pregnancy Yoga program will get your muscles limber and your breathing in order. It should also allow you to clear your mind and relax. Other traditional low impact programs such as Pilates and Tai Chi also are perfect when modified for pregnancy. Let your instructor know that you are pregnant.

Two of the most traditional exercises also should also be incorporated in a pregnancy health plan. A daily walking program will stretch out the muscles. Try power walking around your neighborhood.

Without much planning you can do this everyday. Swimming exercises are a comfortable way to stretch out muscles.

What about more active exercises during pregnancy? If you enjoy an active lifestyle, and your doctor agrees, you should be able to continue this active lifestyle during the first and part of the second trimester. And don’t forsake your trips to the gym. A jogging and tennis (not Wimbeldon) are fine. Limit away from more active exercises that could lead to accidents even when you are not pregnant (Anything that involves skates or horses). If you chose an active plan, make sure that you scale back your schedule prior to pregnancy.

There is no simple way around it: pregnancy is a grueling physical experience. A good pregnant woman’s exercise plan, like any similar experience, can make this easier. Stretching, low impact exercise, even more active exercises can help make you stay throughout.

Related Exercise Plan Articles