Stretching for Better Performance

Stretching is held as one of the best helps for performance in many activities from workouts to household chores to social situations and job interviews. Here are some stretches that you can do when you have a minute to kill while you are waiting in line at the grocery store or maybe just before you step onto the treadmill for your next workout.

The first stretch that you can do will stretch out your hamstring muscles in the back of your lower leg. This is an important muscle to keep limber since it is used in everyday activities such as walking and running.

To perform this stretch you will need to position yourself next to a large piece of workout equipment or possible a wall so that you have something besides your leg muscles of you to put your weight against. One of the basic rules of stretching says that the muscle that you are stretching cannot be flexed at the time that you are trying to stretch it out.

This is the reason that you need to stand next to some large, heavy object while you are doing this stretch so that you can lean against it and not use your leg muscles to hold your body up. To perform this stretch you will have one floor farther out in front than the other.

Your back leg will basically be straightened out and should only bend at the ankle. Your front leg should cover about half of the distance between your back foot and the wall and should be bent at the knee.

Your torso should be inclined forward to the wall and your arms should be out in front of you so that your hands are against the wall. Again, you hamstrings will not be able to flex and stretch at the same time so the wall and your hands and arms are taking the place of your lower leg muscles in making sure that you don’t just tip forward.

This stretch can also be performed by assuming the pushup position and placing the toe of one foot above and behind the foot that remains on the ground. The upper foot then presses back slowly on the heel of the lower foot just under the Achilles tendon.

This action will basically stretch the same muscles as the first stretch mentioned. You can even create your own stretching positions in you will first find a way to relax the muscle that you want to stretch.