Every sportsperson or anyone who exercises does stretching before and after their workout and activities. They are the ones who know the significance of stretching for the human body. Irrespective of whether being a sports person or an athlete, every common person should also stretch their body muscles to release tension and support recovery.
There are several types of stretching people can include for their own benefit. The commonly preferred types of stretching include active, passive, dynamic, and ballistic stretching. This article will teach the concept of passive stretching and its five amazing benefits.
Concept of Passive Stretching
In passive stretching, you stay in one position for a set time. While doing passive stretching, a partner, accessory, or prop puts external pressure on your body to intensify the stretch; thus, you can relax. You can simply use the floor or a wall to intensify the stretch. It is a kind of static stretching where you stay in a position and allow your muscles to relax while an external force is applied to your limb. If you are looking to start with passive stretching at home, you can opt for plenty of stretches that can be performed by using your own body weight or with the floor and a wall.
Advantages of Passive Stretching
By incorporating passive stretching into your workout routine, you will get the following benefits.
- Reduced Risk of Injury
If done correctly, passive stretching can help you reduce the risk of injuries in your everyday life. If your muscles are tight, they will restrict your range of motion, making you more likely to injure yourself. This may lead to injuries from things such as – making the muscle painfully restricted, doing repetitive motion at work, injuring the muscle if it cannot stretch that far, and going beyond your range of motion in everyday activities.
- Improved Mobility and Flexibility
In order to increase the individual range of motion of your joints, you keep moving them in various directions while stretching. Since you hold these positions for longer in passive stretching, it allows more benefits such as – increased flexibility in joints, muscles, and ligaments, less tension and pain in the body, increased mobility and range of motion, and relief from everyday discomfort and tightness that comes with repetitive motion or sitting.
- Health Benefits
Passive stretching also provides some benefits you may not experience immediately but will have long-term results. Passive stretching helps you improve blood flow to your muscles and joints. Thus your joints and muscles will stay healthier and mobile for a longer period of time. With increased endorphins production, passive stretching makes you feel less stressed in several other aspects of your life.
- Great Method of Cool-Down
Most of us prefer grabbing a chair or simply lying down after some heavy cardio. Unfortunately, if you do that, you will suffer from the lactic acid that gets built up in your muscles. There are several advantages of stretching post-workout. It is a great way of cool-down because there are no extra laps around the track; you can just slow your breathing and work out the kinks, ensuring a quick recovery.
- Easy to Learn
When you go for more advanced dynamic stretches, they require a little supervision and practice before you get it right. On the contrary, you can already think of a passive stretch for any part of your body just off the top of your head. Passive stretches are very easy to learn, and no major practice is required for doing them right.
With this information, we can conclude by saying that it’s best if everyone includes passive stretching in their workout routine to gain the above benefits.
If you are interested in teaching others how to stretch and helping them gain the benefits of stretching, you can become a stretching instructor.
But for this, you need certification as you will understand the basics and variations to fulfil your client’s requirements. If interested, you can take up a course from the American Sports & Fitness Association.
