Types of Exercises That Stretch Your Muscles

Some people are very busy at work, so muscle soreness is quite common. For example, people who stare at the computer in the office all day will have particularly stiff muscles. So after returning home, they need to do some appropriate muscle stretching exercises to relax their muscles. Today we will learn about the types of muscle stretching exercises.

Stretching can be divided into active stretching and passive stretching.

Stretching by holding a body part in a certain position is called active stretching. Stretching in which someone else holds a body part in a certain position for a certain period of time is called passive stretching.

There are four main types of stretching: static stretching, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF stretching), swing stretching, and dynamic stretching. The most common of these is static stretching.

During static stretching, a body part is slowly moved into a certain position and held for a certain period of time to stretch a muscle or muscle group. Since the muscles are in a relaxed state and the stretching speed is slow when static stretching begins, static stretching will not activate the stretch reflex (when you tap the Achilles tendon with a mallet, you can see the knee tendon). When the stretch reflex occurs, the stretched muscle contracts instead of stretching, which defeats the purpose of the exercise.

PNF stretching refers to a skill that stretches the contracted muscles by changing the range of motion of the limb joints. When the joint's range of motion is maximized, the muscles are relaxed before this stretch. The combination of muscle contraction and muscle stretching can relax tense muscles, reduce the intrinsic pressure of muscles that promote and prevent joint movement, and relax muscles to enhance flexibility.

Swinging stretching refers to using muscle contraction to force the muscles to swing and stretch continuously. Although each swing motion stretches the muscles, swinging also activates the stretch (or patellar tendon) reflex. Because the stretch reflex stimulates the muscle group to re-contract after the stretch is completed, the use of swing stretches is generally discouraged.

Dynamic stretching refers to stretching that is performed while doing a specific physical activity. Dynamic stretching is similar to swinging stretching in that both use rapid movements of the limbs to achieve the stretching effect, but the difference is that dynamic stretching does not involve shaking or swinging. Additionally, dynamic stretching only utilizes the muscles that are specifically involved in a particular movement. More specifically, dynamic stretching is similar to warm-up exercises for sports (that is, low-intensity warm-up exercises required for sports).

After reading this article, I believe everyone has an understanding of the types of exercises that stretch muscles, so it is best to use some special exercise equipment to stretch the muscles. This will appear more professional, and the effect after exercise will be better, but they are basically low-intensity exercises.