Supplement Your Stretching Routine With Dynamic Stretching
Stretching with calisthenic movements, which is technically dynamic stretching, is a great supplement to your holding for time stretching or static stretching routine. Doing calisthenics is a very quick way to increase your flexibility, because they can be done anywhere, also increase your coordination, balance and muscle tone. Static stretching can get boring but a quick whole body calisthenics are fun to do and invigorating. Calisthenics can also be used as a warm-up and as a workout in itself.
Contents
Steps
- Do calisthenics as a warm up. For example, instead of doing 10 to 15 minutes on a treadmill as a warm up, do a whole body calisthenics routine for half of that time. Do calisthenics for 5 minutes then go on the treadmill for 5 -10 minutes.
- Be flexible, focus on the stretching aspect only when you are warm.
- When you have been inactive, do not focus on the stretching aspect of the movement, but on the movement itself. In the morning, after sleeping or when you have been just sitting for a long time are examples of being inactive.
- When you have been active, focus more on stretching. If you are warmed-up from housework, washing your car or from walking, your body will be warm and stretching is safer in this state.
- Watch internet videos of genuine dynamic stretching. Borrow or buy a book on exercising. Think of the calisthenic exercises that you had to do in school, in exercise classes and prior to a sporting activity. Search the internet for calisthenics and their variations.
- Be thorough and move every joint in your body. Make a list of every joint in your body. Use this list for starters: 1) neck, 2) shoulders, 3) elbows and wrist, 4) back, 5) hips, 6) knee and 7) ankle.
- For every joint, write every movement that you need to do. Use this expanded list and modify it later to your liking:
- Neck - front and back, side to side and turning.
- Shoulder - vertical swings, horizontal swings, vertical shrugging, horizontal shrugging and rotating.
- Elbows - bending and extending and twisting.
- Wrist and Fingers - do a waving motion and clenching your fist.
- Back - side bending, standing forward bending and standing backward bending.
- Hips - standing forward leg swings, side leg swings, back leg swings, and front, diagonal leg swings.
- Knees - leg curls, walking lunges and squatting.
- Ankles - side to side and front and back. Do this standing on one leg and with your holding on to a wall or chair for balance.
- Place this list in your training room or at your desk, as a reminder to do calisthenic stretching and as a guide when exercising.
- For each movement, do at least 5 repetitions. The elbow is hard to warm up, do more repetitions. With squats and lunges, do not do many repetitions because this is a supplemental stretching routine and not a strength building routine.
- For variety, do variations of a movement. For the ankles, sit on the floor and do ankle circles. Instead of squatting, lie on your back and do a movement similar to a basic abdominal crunch.
- Time yourself, this routine should take between 6 - 8 minutes. To use calisthenics as a workout increase the repetitions to 10 - 20 and the total time to 10 - 15 minutes.
- Be sensitive to your body. For example, when doing neck movements, note how you are recovering from the neck pain you got from sleeping with the pillow positioned differently, than you normally do, because you were tired.
Tips
- Whole body exercises are great, but for some of the time exercise your whole body in parts.
- Concentrating on the front chest, hamstrings, and front thigh for stretching are efficient because the muscles involved are big. However, for some of the time, exercise all of the areas of your body to be flexible, to have kinesthetic awareness and for injury prevention.
Warnings
- Flexibility decreases with age and inactivity, incorporate this routine into your life permanently and regularly and reap the benefits of it.
