8 Top Tips For A More Flexible You - Get Super Stretchy!

posted in Health & Fitness on 7/15/2014

Take good care of your inner body. Good care of your body includes paying attention to what you eat and ensuring that you are getting adequate nutrition. Maintain a healthy diet. Eat more green leafy vegetables and increase your protein and calcium (drinking milk is one easy way to increase your intake of both of these). Every morning, eat a good, healthy breakfast. Drink plenty of water. The most important thing is to balance everything.

Keep your joints and muscles stretched and cared for. Start your workout with low-impact stretches and work up to a full stretch workout. Later, wind down your routine with low-impact exercising.

Try this fantastic flexibility workout by holding each position for 15-30 seconds depending on how confident you are.

Make sure you have supervision when performing stretches. If you have no idea what you are doing you'll undoubtedly injure yourself. Most martial arts schools and gymnastics classes have extensive programs and teachers available. Check them out.

Remember to include both the positive and negative motions when you stretch. Keep it symmetrical. If you are stretching your left, stretch out your right too. If you are bending forward, bend backwards too. If you don't feel a little strain in your muscles, you're not doing it in a way that will prove beneficial. A little strain is normal.

Think positive when you're becoming flexible. It takes time but you will get there. Tell yourself motivating things, such as: "I know I can do this!"

Do stretches every day (for at least 10 to 15 minutes) and work at it progressively. This is important if you want to become flexible! Remember, you can't become flexible overnight. Work at the rate you are comfortable with, and then slowly increase the difficulty (length of time, length of reach or both).

When you are doing stretches, wear comfortable gear, such as tank top and shorts, leotard, and so forth. Do warm ups before beginning stretches. One way to warm up would to be to do a decent amount of jumping jacks. Starting with difficult and advanced stretches is dangerous and ill-advised for anyone. Begin from the easier stretches, then move on to the harder ones.