Stretching Before & After Exercise

You probably already know about the importance of exercising on a regular basis. Many don’t know that with every time you exercise, proper stretching should be accompanied with your workout.

Importance of Stretching

If you aren’t properly stretching with your workout, you are definitely putting yourself at risk for a serious injury during your workout. It’s always a bad situation when you can’t workout because of a workout related injury that was very preventable – if only you stretched after your workout!

Not only do you prevent injury by stretching, you also become increasingly more flexible,  stronger, bring valuable oxygen to your muscles, and  provide better blood circulation.

Stretching after your workout helps prevent muscle cramps, soreness, and allow for your muscles to loosen up.

Before your Workout

Do you need to stretch before your workout? This topic is very debated, and studies show that stretching before your workout might not be as beneficial as we all once thought. In my personal experience, I find that stretching is very beneficial for my workouts, especially since I have previously injured one of my knees in the past. I notice that I have a lot more range of movement, and my knees don’t hurt at all (or as much) during my workout  compared to me not stretching at all. My take? Listen to your body’s needs and take necessary precautions.

Studies say that having a warm up before your workout is really what helps your body get ready for that good heavy workout your about to do.

After your Workout

After your workout is when you should be stretching, which you will really notice the benefits when your muscles aren’t as tight and sore the next day.

When stretching, be sure to breath in and out slowly and allow yourself to ease into your stretch. Do not “bounce” into your stretch, as this can cause more injury to yourself than not stretching at all.

Stretching Tips

•Ease into your stretches – Be sure to ease into each of your stretches rather than quickly moving into them. Quickly moving into your stretches might cause injury in and of itself.

•Slowly Breathe in and out – Just as Breathing while working out is important, it is just as important to Breathe while you are stretching.

•Keep it in the Happy Medium – Don’t barely stretch where you aren’t really stretching at all, and don’t over do it where you end up hurting yourself. If you aren’t feeling anything, slowly ease more into the stretch until you feel it. If you are in pain, you are over doing it, and ease slowly out of the stretch until you feel moderately. The goal is to find the “Happy Medium”.

Stretches

Here are some stretches that will be helpful for you:

Glute Stretch – While sitting down on the floor, extend both legs in front of you and put one leg over the other and place the foot as close as possible to the hip. Be sure to keep your upper body upright and grab your leg and pull it towards your upper body.

Inner Thigh Stretch – While sitting down on the floor with your upper body upright, bend your knees and press the soles of your feet up against each other. Slowly push your knees to the floor, without bouncing. This stretch is more commonly known as the “butterfly stretch”.

Hamstring – Sit on the floor with both of your legs straight in front of you. Keep your toes up rather than pointed, and reach for your toes with your hands.

Calf – Stand at arms length from a wall, and put both hands on the wall. Put one foot forward and bend it towards the wall while your other foot is straight.

Quad – Stand close to a wall or other support, and with one hand balance yourself. Lift one leg off the floor and with your other hand, grab your ankles (not your toes!) and hold.

Ankles – While standing up, roll one of your ankles clockwise ten times, and then again counter-clockwise. This stretch is important for when you put a lot of weight on your ankles, such as when you are running.

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Tags: After Exercise, Before Exercise, muscle, oxygen, post workout, preworkout, Proper stretching, stretch, Stretching, tips, workout

DRX9000 Spinal Decompression

Here is my personal story and Review on the DRX9000. If you have any sort of back or neck pain, or know someone who does, I promise you that it will be worth your time to continue reading on.

How it all happened

At 23 years old, I was working 10-12 hour days trying to save up for my “dream home”. When my Husband and I crunched the numbers and looked at what we needed to have for our down payment the following month, stress built up faster than I realized. At this point in time, I wasn’t exercising like I should have, and I didn’t have a way to release the stress I was causing myself by overworking and buying a home that was a little out of reach for us at the time.

My body came to the point where I just snapped. All I did was reach for my Organic Rice Milk (half empty, by the way) and something felt weird in my lower back. No pain. Just a weird feeling. I went to pour my milk and went to sit down, and I felt sharp daggers of pain in my lower back. All I could think of is “What happened to my back!?”. I have never felt so much pain in my life. I called for my husband, who helped me lie down on my bed, since sitting obviously wasn’t working out, and standing was almost just as painful.

The following day was Sunday, and I was in bed all day. I couldn’t handle sitting or standing still. All I could think is, “this much pain just can’t be good”

Monday finally came. At that point, after being in so much pain for 2 days straight, I lost it. I just started bawling, which hurt my back even more. My husband made an appointment with my Chiropractor for as early as possible that morning. My husband helped me get up and then help me walk and get into our car.

After my Doctor adjusted my back, I still was experiencing extreme pain, but at least know I could get in and out of bed, which is something I wasn’t able to do on my own before. I ended up seeing my Doctor for several days in a row and not experiencing the kind of improvement I should have seen by then, and then my Doctor had me get an MRI done.

MRI Results

Turns out, I had several bulged and herniated discs in my lower back. Ouch.

Good news: I wasn’t making all this pain all up.

Bad news: Since I wasn’t able to hardly move, lift, sit, walk, or anything…I was 23 years old and my only option right now was going on Short Term Disability.

What are my options?

I could hardly move without being in extreme pain. I knew I couldn’t live like this. I could go under the knife and have back surgery. Not only do I have a horrible fear of surgery and knives, but with much research I realized that surgery wasn’t really going to fix my problem. Yes, maybe help alleviate some pain, but it would be an ongoing battle for the rest of my life. At 23 years old, I was hoping to have a long and healthy life, and Surgery wasn’t feeling like a very positive option for me.

I was introduced to Spinal Decompression by my Chiropractor.  I ultimately chose Spinal Decompression as the best solution to heal my back.

Spinal Decompression

The DRX9000 machine basically slowly and carefully pulls my spine, then releases it, then pulls it again. During my regular treatments,I am laying down being stretched for about 20 minutes. After I was done being stretched, I would go home and put ice on my back (wearing my wonderful back brace) and have ice on for 20 minutes on and off again- for the next 2 hours. I wasn’t allowed (or able) to lift anything at all, I had to do my homework (back stretches), take my daily walk to strengthen my back, and drink lots of water and eat extremely healthy.

After 3 months of regular treatment, I was able to lift light objects, go back to the gym,  go back to work and get on with my life.

Spinal Decompression works – you just need to give your body time, follow the guidelines (don’t lift heavy objects!), and it all will be worth it when your back pain is gone and a thing of the past. Of course, I will never forget the lessons I learned from my experience.

Lessons learned

Don’t allow yourself to get so stressed, since it does have a physical impact on your body. I learned that I keep my emotions to myself, and I need to release my stress somehow. I discovered exercise was a wonderful way to relieve stress.

There is hope, and there are options. Surgery is not the only option. If you go to a Surgeon, you will probably be told that Surgery is your only option. You should do some research for yourself and come up with an educated choice that is right for you. Do what is in the best interest of your health, not your surgeons wallet.

It’s not the end of the world. 2 years later, I rarely experience any sort of back pain at all. This is huge when you consider how I would have felt if I would have went for the back surgery. Health is the only thing you can’t buy. I’m glad I was able to get my body back on track. I believe you can too!

Where you can go

Interested to see if  Spinal Decompression can help you?

Check out the Doctor that helped me: Dr. Morgan

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Tags: bones, bulged, bulged discs, discs, DRX9000, herniated, herniated disc, lower back, neck, Spinal Decompression, stretch