The health benefits of stretching

The average sedentary person will lose a quarter to a third of his or her range of motion and possibly much more during adult life, which can dramatically curtail activity levels and contribute to a weakened heart. Here are some of the health benefits of stretching.

• Stretching helps to lower stress which can help control high blood pressure and insulin resistance.
• Your muscles are equipped with stretch receptors that are in constant communication with your brain about your overall level of tension.
• When your muscles are chronically tight, your brain gets the message that you're under stress.
• Stretching helps muscles to relax, which sends a message to the brain that all is well.

• Just as our skin thins and gets drier with time, so do our muscles and connective tissues.
• With less fluid keeping them plump and supple, muscles lose their elasticity and grow shorter and tighter.
• Short, rigid muscles act like tourniquets, constricting circulation so blood vessels can't deliver nutrients and carry out waste as well as they should.
• As waste builds up, hard knots (calcifications) form, which leave us feeling stiff and uncomfortable.
• The result is that we literally get stuck in the hunched-over positions most of us assume for hours each day as we read, type, drive, eat, cook and clean.

• Poor posture is rampant and the main culprit is inflexibility.
• Many people dismiss bad posture as just an aesthetic problem, but hunching and slumping do more than look bad.
• They cause a whole series of problems, such as muscle imbalances, headaches, back pain and disc degeneration.
• Poor posture even affects your breathing, making it shallower than it should be because your lungs can't fully expand when your chest is collapsed inward.
• Hunching tends to make people feel poorly both physically and emotionally.
• When you progressively stretch your muscles through their full range of movement, you open the channels, promote circulation and encourage efficient nutrient transport and swift waste removal from those tissues.
• Stretching will also increase the synovial fluid (the body's natural oil that lubricates your joints) in your body's hinges and sockets, which helps to keep your joints healthy and moving smoothly.

• Studies suggest that stretching before exercise offers no protection against acute injuries such as sprains.
• However, stretching is still essential for general flexibility and can help you to avoid painful chronic conditions, such as Achilles tendinitis, that can arise from having chronically tight muscles and connective tissue.
• Studies also show that stretching after exercise is like wringing the lactic acid and accumulated metabolic waste out of your muscles.
• The result: less post-exercise muscle soreness, so you'll feel ready to go the next day.

• Researchers have found that men and women who practice yoga twice a week became less hunched and improved their spinal flexibility — the ability to arch backward — by an astonishing 188 percent.
• But you don't have to spend hours twisting into acrobatic positions — just a few minutes of simple daily stretches can restore lost flexibility by 10 to 15 percent.

Along with these health benefits, remember that a major advantage of stretching is that it can have an effect no matter how long you've been sedentary for. So stand up from your desk and stretch!