Specific Stretching Activities

There are stretches for almost every muscle or group of muscles in your body, but I have concentrated on areas that have a tendency to become tight and can limit motion. These areas include the hips, hamstrings, calves, and anterior shoulders. You only need to stretch those areas that are tight; for the rest you can do range of motion activities. As I indicated earlier, use a static stretch for these tight muscles - three to five stretches per muscle group, with a 30-second hold per stretch. You should feel a gentle pull, and the stretch should not increase pain in the joint or muscle. I suggest doing these stretches as part of your cool-down after aerobic exercise.

A good way to organize your stretching routine is to do all of your sitting stretches and then your standing stretches. It may be less boring if you do only the first repetition of each stretch, in a series, and then repeat the series. For example, start with a hamstring stretch, transition to a groin (adductor muscle) stretch, next do a rotator (piriformis) stretch on each side, and then repeat the sequence. After you do three to five of these sitting stretches, move to a standing position and stretch your hip flexors and calf muscles. Doing all of these movements, with 30-second holds, takes 15 to 20 minutes. Determine which areas of your body feel tight and which moves you find most help for those areas. You rarely need to do 5 repetitions; 3 reps give you a sufficient stretch and help your overall flexibility. I have shown one or two variations for most of the stretches so that you can select the version you find easiest to perform.

Hamstring Stretches

Groin Stretch

Piriformis Stretch

Sitting Internal Rotator Stretch

Hip Flexor Stretch

Calf Stretches

Pectoral Stretch

Upper Pectoral Stretch

Rotator Stretch