“Tight muscles aren’t working at 100%. Thus, relaxing your muscles reduces stress, injury risk, and improves functional performance and training results.
Static stretching, which involves moving the muscle into its longest position without pain and holding it for 15 to 20 seconds, should be done “after you are warm and are done with any exercise or activity you’re doing
When muscles are tense, the neuromuscular control system might overprotect. For a muscle to extend to its maximum physiological limit, a variety of neurons and protecting structures must activate (or not fire).
Your neuromuscular system must relax to completely extend a muscle. It tells your muscles to relax and stretch thus far.
Exercise physiologists employ "proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation" (PNF) to stretch. Many experts recommend the hold-relax with agonist contraction strategy for PNF stretching to reduce stiffness, lengthen muscles, and improve range of motion.
This stretch works for any tight muscle, but here's how to stretch tight hamstrings. After exercise or at night, do two to four sets of this stretch. Never extend a joint so much that it hurts.
Lay on your back with one leg straight up. Hold your elevated leg with a partner's heel and thigh above the knee.
Have your partner squeeze on your straight leg to bring it toward your chest until you feel a little hamstring stretch. Have your spouse stretch for 10 seconds. Relax and stretch.
Contract your hamstrings to "fight" the stretch for six seconds as your partner holds your leg motionless. Your leg shouldn't move if you're working oppositely.
Relax again, using your quadriceps to "pull" your leg closer to your chest and deepen the stretch. 30-second hold. The hamstrings should extend farther than in Step 2.
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