Muscle stretching is needed by everyone – hostages of a sedentary lifestyle, physically active people and athletes. By providing blood flow to the muscles, stretching helps to improve posture, make it easier to perform various exercises, while reducing the risk of injury and easing pain.
In order to not miss any important muscles during stretching and to ensure the correct execution of movements, it is necessary to know which muscles you are warming up during this or that stretching exercise.
estet-poral.com wants to make it easier for you to present short descriptions and illustrations of muscle stretching exercises (prepared by Spanish coach Vicki Timon) that everyone will surely benefit from.
Exercises for stretching muscles – short description and illustrations
First of all, when performing any exercise, including those aimed at stretching the muscles, you must remember about safety. If during the movements you feel a sharp unpleasant pain, you need to stop and correct the technique. Try to perform movements as naturally as possible, without overstraining your muscles, and watch your breathing.
- Muscles worked: rectus and external obliques.
Execution: Sit on your heels, take your hands back and push your hips forward and inward without overexerting your lower back. If you have problems with your neck, do not tilt your head back.
- Muscles involved: adductors.
Execution: in a sitting position, knees bent, back straight. Start slowly straightening your legs, bending your back a little, try to touch your feet.
- Muscles involved: adductors(adductors)
Execution: Get on all fours and slowly spread your knees until you feel tension in your groin muscles.
- Muscles involved: adductors(adductors)
Execution: stand with your legs wide apart. Slowly lower your hands to the right foot, bending the right leg at the knee and lifting the toes of the left foot up. The right foot is completely on the floor.
- Muscles involved: adductors(adductors)
Execution: in a sitting position, lean your feet against each other, sit on your sitting bones, straighten your back. Gently press your hands on your knees, lowering your legs closer to the floor. The closer the feet are to the body, the stronger the stretch of the muscles.
- Muscles worked: extensor forearm
Execution: lower the shoulder down and back, then fix it in the optimal position. Now start pressing on the opposite hand as shown in the picture.
- Muscles worked: sternocleidomastoid
Execution: stretching your neck as much as possible, slowly lower your ear to your shoulder.
- Muscles worked: sternocleidomastoid
Execution: Begin stretching by slowly turning your neck and keeping your chin up. For a deeper stretch, you can use your hand.
- Muscles worked: sternocleidomastoid
Execution: Place your hands on your hips, straighten your back and begin to move your head back, being careful.
- Muscles worked: sternocleidomastoid and superior trapezius
Execution: straightening your neck as much as possible, try to touch your shoulder with your ear.
- Muscles worked: psoas and quadriceps
Execution: kneel, slowly move your right hip forward. Grasp the back of the foot and tighten the gluteal muscle.
- Muscles worked: extensor forearm
Execution: lower the shoulder down and back, then fix it in the optimal position. Now begin to press on the opposite hand, as shown in the picture
- Muscles worked: lateral deltoid
Execution: Straighten your arm across your body and apply light pressure to increase the stretch of the muscle.
- Muscles worked: trapezius
Execution: in a standing position (legs together) with a straight back, slowly move your hips down and back, rounding your back and at the same time touching your chin to your chest.
- 3muscles worked: latissimus dorsi
Execution: Grasp the bar, slowly lift your feet off the floor.
- Muscles worked: latissimus dorsi
Performance: stand with both hands on the corner of a wall or a pillar. Keeping your back straight, slowly move your hips to the side.
- Muscles worked: latissimus dorsi
Execution: Get on all fours and slowly push your hips back until your forehead touches the floor.
- Muscles worked: soleus and gastrocnemius
Performance: Stand on the edge of a step and rotate your ankles slightly in and out to stretch your muscles.
- Muscles worked: soleus and gastrocnemius
Execution: Start stretching on one knee (as for a lunge), use caution if you have hip problems.
- Muscles worked: hamstrings and calves
Execution: Sit on your sitting bones and bend your knees if necessary. Try to grab your feet with your hands, straightening your knees.
- Muscles Worked: Hamstring
Execution: Put one foot in front of the other. Place your hands on your hips and, straightening your back, begin to bend down from the hip.
- Muscles worked: glutes
Performance: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and slowly crouch down with your arms extended between your legs and balance with your feet and hips.
- Muscles worked: glutes
Execution: From a seated position, slowly bring your leg up to your chest and rotate your hip outward, keeping your back straight.
- Muscles worked: soleus and gastrocnemius
Execution: Start in a lunge starting position with your back foot slightly outward. Slowly lower the heel of your back foot to the floor to stretch the muscles.
- Muscles worked: external obliques
Execution: Straighten your spine and slowly move your hips to the side. If you have back problems, refrain from the exercise.
- Muscles worked: gluteal and external obliques
Execution: lie on your back, move one leg across the whole body, slowly turning the torso in the opposite direction.
- Muscles worked: external obliques
Execution: Keeping your spine straight, slowly move your hips to the side. For pain in the lower back, refrain from exercising.
- Muscles worked: external obliques
Execution: Spread your legs wide, the front foot should look forward, and the other should be rotated 90 degrees. Place your hand on your front leg, move your front thigh back and down, keeping your back straight and raising your opposite arm.
- Muscles worked: chest
Execution: stand facing the wall, put your palm on it so that the thumb is on top. Slowly turn away from the wall to stretch your chest muscles.
- Muscles worked: chest and latissimus dorsi
Execution: lie on the floor, palms should look up. Your assistant does a deep squat, you should feel the tension in these muscles.
- Muscles worked: tibialis anterior
Execution: sit down and put one arm back, put one leg on the other above the knee, holding it with your hand.
- Muscles involved: subscapularis
Execution: lie on your back, move your arm, bent at an angle of 90 degrees, to the side. Slowly lower the back of your hand to the floor.
- Muscles worked: chest and latissimus dorsi
Execution: stand at a sufficient distance from the wall so that when you touch the wall, your body is parallel to the floor. Get into the position shown in the picture, keeping your back straight, and then slightly push your chest forward to stretch the muscles.
- Muscles Worked: Breasts
Execution: lie face down on the floor, put your hands along the body, palms down. Have an assistant pull your arms back, providing a stretch to the chest muscles. Injuries and pinching in the shoulder area are contraindications for this exercise.
estet-portal.com warns: before stretching, make sure that there are no problems with the back, neck, shoulders and other parts of the body that can be aggravated during stretching. Consult your doctor.
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