Stretching

Without stretching muscles can shorten and become tight and this can create difficulty in movement for all activities from everyday life to sport.

Tight muscles increase tension both physically and mentally affecting your joints, posture, movement and put you more at risk of pulled muscles, pain and injury.

So stretching is a key element of all Pilates practice through static holds and active movements, flowing one into the next to encourage the stretch.

Stretching helps to lengthen muscles, increasing strength and reducing tension.

It is also important to focus on relaxed breathing to encourage a stretch and relax and flow into it. Holding your breath can add more tension to your body, whereas if you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth it is more relaxed, releasing tension as you breathe out.

Focusing on your breathing when stretching gives you a speed to work to and avoids adding tension elsewhere. You can breathe with a movement, relaxing into it more and releasing tension as you breathe out, helping to flow the different moves.

Regular Pilates practice will keep your muscles stretched and supple, strengthening them, reducing muscle tension and with it stress on different parts of the body and your mind.

So the many benefits of stretching include:

• Improved posture and balance
• A greater range of pain free movement
• Decreased on-going pain eg back pain
• Reduced muscle soreness
• Less risk of injury
• Improved recovery
• Reduced stress
• Less tiredness
• Increased physical performance in your activities and sport
• Improved relaxation and general well-being in everyday life

Pretty amazing really so... let's get stretching!

Movement and Stretching express Wednesday online classes are a good starting point. See page for details.