Stretches! #ReadersWorkouts
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Welcome to Readers’ Workouts, the weekly event where book lovers share workout stories, goals, successes, and challenges.
Stretching is important for my ability to prevent injury. But, it’s so tricky to figure out how and when to do it after I’ve been injured. My back’s a bit better and I’m starting to worry about re-injuring it or some other part of my body without some stretching, so I finally did some over the weekend — hamstrings (oh so gently), iliotibial band, neck and shoulders and upper back. That was it — but it felt good!
How do you work with stretches before and after injury?
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I always stretch before and after I run and the short Pilates routines I’ve been doing all include a bit of stretching. There are a few stretches I’ll do occasionally just to relax a bit during the day. Too much sitting sometimes gets to my back.
Slow go to recovery! Wishing you the best.My favorite stretch is ankle on one knee while lying flat on the floor and raise weighted knee and then change legs. It feels so good!
Hi Joy!
I’ve never had an injury, but I suppose you have to be careful afterwards. Hope your back is improving with those stretches!
It’s a coincidence, but yesterday I watched a video about exercises to prevent back injuries (stretchings too) and I did them yesterday and today, just in case!
What stretches do you use for your IT band? I have been having issues with it lately.
The one Haralee described above is a good one, especially for the top half of the IT band.
The first standing stretch on this page helps with the bottom half: http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/iliotibial-band-stretches.html
When I’m not having a flare-up, I like to do clamshells as a way to strengthen the IT Band.
Someone told me that stretching before you exercise isn’t the recommended thing to do anymore, because of the risk of injuring yourself that way, so I stopped doing it a couple of years ago. Who knows what’s best, right? My husband and I are doing a line dance weekend — marathon daytime line dance workshops and nighttime dancing today and tomorrow — for my Reader’s Workout!
https://twitter.com/baystateRA/status/715881188817285120
Yeah stretching is a must. I think I do it more after exercise than before. But I like to go to yoga classes b/c of the stretching. Feels great after class.