Fitness and Flexibility

We've all heard the drill, stretch before and after exercising. If you're anything like me, you generally don't listen to people that are smarter than you and know what they're talking about. Call it stubbornness, stupidity, laziness, whatever. When I was running on a regular basis, back in the day when I was a skinny bitch, I can count on one hand the number of times I actually stretched before a run. I would go balls out during the workout and then just want to drag my butt home before the sore muscles set in. BAD Dual Mom. Surprisingly enough I never did serious injury to myself. I was lucky. I'm a few years older and wiser now and I try to do a few stretches before each session at the gym, if nothing else I stretch out my hamstrings.

36% of your body mass is made up of skeletal muscle, the percentage is a bit higher for men. These muscles are what allow us to walk, run, run our mouth off, pick up our kids and hug them, drive our cars. Any motion, and non motion for that matter, involves the use of muscle. There are approximately 639 skeletal muscles in the human body.

Did you know that bears are the only mammals in the world that can go for prolonged periods of time (hibernation) without losing muscle mass and having their muscles atrophy? The rest of us....yeah use it or lose it as the saying goes. The layer of muscle inside a woman's uterus is the strongest muscle in the body. The heart obviously performs more work over an average life span than any other muscle in the body.

Ok, enough riveting facts about muscles. The point here is that our muscles are important and we seldom give credit where credit is due. Stretching before and after a workout is uber important. Taking a few minutes to stretch and warm up your muscles before beginning exercise releases a lubricating substance from the cartilage within the joints, which aids the fluid motion of muscles and also keeps bones from scraping against one another at connection points in the body. Lubricated and fluid moving muscles have more flexibility which reduces your chances of injuring them.

There are some great resources on the web that will list some basic stretches everyone should do, webmd.com is one of my favorites. Mayoclinic.com also offers some great basic stretches you can do before and after a workout. Both are reputable sites that know there stuff. As for the benefits of stretching, one of the best workouts I've had over the past five weeks is after a yoga class. It literally feels as though your body is fluid. If you have never tried a yoga class before, I strongly encourage you to check it out. Ensure it's a beginner class (advanced yoga scares the crap out of me) with an experienced instructor. You'll thank me for it later.