{"id":41,"date":"2019-08-19T14:53:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T14:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/?p=41"},"modified":"2019-08-22T13:16:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T13:16:43","slug":"why-we-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/why-we-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Flexibility is one of the five components of fitness. It is important to include stretching as an integral part of every workout program. Take a look at how stretching can change your game!<\/p>\n<h3>Benefits of stretching<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Decreases muscle stiffness and increases range of motion<\/li>\n<li>May reduce your risk of injury<\/li>\n<li>Helps relieve post-exercise aches and pains<\/li>\n<li>Improves posture<\/li>\n<li>Helps reduce or manage stress<\/li>\n<li>Reduces muscular tension and enhances muscular relaxation<\/li>\n<li>Improves mechanical efficiency and overall functional performance<\/li>\n<li>Prepares the body for the stress of exercise<\/li>\n<li>Promotes circulation<\/li>\n<li>Decreases the risk of low-back pain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Try these stretches after your next workout!<\/h3>\n<h4>LOWER BACK STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Lie on your back with your knees bent<\/li>\n<li>Place your arms by your sides<\/li>\n<li>Pull your knees toward your chest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>GROIN STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Sit with the soles of your feet together<\/li>\n<li>Push down on the inside of your knees to stretch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>GLUTE STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Sit with one ledge bent and crossed over your straight leg<\/li>\n<li>Lean back, pulling your legs to your chest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>HIP FLEXOR STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand with one leg behind you<\/li>\n<li>Slowly bend your front leg, contracting the gluteal muscles in your back leg<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>HAMSTRING STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Standing upright, place your heel up onto a step in front of you<\/li>\n<li>With the leg straight, gently bend forward until you feel a slight hamstring stretch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>CALF STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand arms length from a wall<\/li>\n<li>Place both hands on the wall and one foot behind you<\/li>\n<li>Heel down, lean in until you feel a stretch in your calf<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>QUAD STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand on one leg and use a chair or wall to balance if necessary<\/li>\n<li>Bend your other leg at the knee and grasp your foot behind you<\/li>\n<li>Keep your body upright<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flexibility is one of the five components of fitness. It is important to include stretching as an integral part of every workout program. Take a look at how stretching can change your game! Benefits of stretching Decreases muscle stiffness and increases range of motion May reduce your risk of injury Helps relieve post-exercise aches and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}