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Stretching routines that target particular muscles are a great way to prevent injury from specific workouts like running. Learn about stretching routines that target particular muscles with help from a personal trainer in this free video clip.
The vastus medialis is one of four muscles that make up the quadriceps muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the innermost of the four, located just above the knee, inserting into the patella and originating at the top of the femur, or thigh bone. It is often necessary to strengthen the vastus medialis after a knee injury. Consult your doctor or certified physical therapist before doing any exercises to strengthen the muscle after injury.
Your posterior muscle chain plays a vital role in your ability to run and jump, and it looks good when it is strong and well developed. Certain types of lifts aim at developing some of your backside muscles. Not all lift types target your posterior, but the ones that do often work all of the muscles together.
Exercises that are designed to strengthen the quads can be broken down into four main types and include things like weight lifting. Learn about the four different types of exercises to strengthen the quads with help from an Army Combat Medic in the 1st Calvary Division in Iraq and personal trainer in this free video clip.
Exercises to strengthen the gluteus medialis target your hip abductors. Learn about exercises to strengthen the gluteus medialis with help from one of Los Angeles' top 20 spin instructors in this free video clip.
When you put your thumb in your fist and angle your fist downward, you are actually stretching a really important muscle in your hand. Find out what muscle you are stretching when you put your thumb in your fist and angle your fist downward with help from a personal trainer in this free video clip.
Your front thighs comprise a group of four muscles called the quadriceps femoris. One of these muscles, the inner vastus medialis, has a teardrop shape. This muscle extends from your mid-inner thigh bone down to your inner knee. It functions as a extensor of your knee. If that sounds confusing, just know that the vastus medialis is one of the muscles that lets you straighten your leg. When you do perform the leg extension exercise, you can do a slight tweak that will let you emphasize the work of the vastus medialis, so you can better strengthen this teardrop-shaped muscle.
A stiff-legged deadlift is perfect for activating your hamstring in a very active way. Learn about hamstring activity in a stiff-legged deadlift with help from a professional belly dance performer and instructor in this free video clip.
Tensing your muscles before relaxing or stretching them can increase your range of motion and relaxation. One technique for doing this is called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, or PNF, which works by overriding your body's protective response to stretching a muscle. Another technique, called progressive relaxation, involves systematically tensing and releasing all of your muscles. Progressive relaxation relaxes your entire body by shutting off signals from the nervous system that tell your muscles to contract.
Simple ankle and calf strengthening exercises can be done easily right at home whenever you have a little free time. Do simple ankle and calf strengthening exercises with help from a professional athlete, fitness expert, author, model, and actor in this free video clip.
Yoga for the legs, hamstrings and pyriformis can be done with a Yoga strap or even a towel. Do Yoga for the legs, hamstrings and pyriformis with help from a certified personal trainer, yoga instructor and holistic health practitioner in this free video clip.
Stretches for the iliacus muscle may be necessary if you do a lot of sitting at work or at home. Do stretches for the iliacus muscle with help from a certified personal trainer, yoga instructor and holistic health practitioner in this free video clip.
If you can't lean over and touch your toes or you have trouble tying your shoes, chances are you have tight hamstring muscles. While genetics and age could have something to do with it, exercising your legs without doing stretches afterward also contributes to this problem. Hamstrings -- also known as the medial hamstrings and the biceps femoris -- play a role in almost everything you do that involves your legs. Hamstrings help with hip extension, knee flexion and knee and foot rotation. The good news is yoga is fantastic for stretching the back of your legs, and you get…
Stretching is often overlooked, but it plays an important role in improving your health, fitness and physical performance. Stretching your chest muscles helps improve your posture, and stretching your rib cage, specifically the intercostal muscles between your ribs, helps increase your lung capacity. Chest and rib cage stretches after exercise prevent tight muscles and reduce risk of injury.
Resistance training is a very individualized type of activity that can be varied depending on your goals and time availability. If you must keep your workouts concise and to the point, yet strengthen all your major muscle groups, then you need to perform only a select few multijoint exercises. By moving several joints at a time while doing a movement, you will target a larger number of muscles. Just be prepared to endure some difficult training sessions, as these types of exercises are very demanding on the body. Do four exercises per workout session, and perform three sets of eight…
Just because muscles are inherently inflexible doesn't mean that they can't be stretched. Learn about muscle stretching for inflexible muscles with help from a certified yoga teacher and healer in this free video clip.
Squatting and stretching the pelvic muscles is something you can do with a few basic moves like the cross squat. Squat and stretch the pelvic muscles with help from a certified yoga teacher and healer in this free video clip.
After working out at the gym, the last thing you want to leave with is a pulled muscle. One of the major ways to avoid a strained muscle is to take the time to stretch. Stretching your adductors, or inside thigh muscles, will not only help reduce your risk of a strain, but also your risk of a knee injury. You can perform adductor stretches standing, seated or lying on your back.
Making efforts to maintain your flexibility will improve your mobility and decrease muscle-tightness pain issues. Flexibility refers to the degree of range of motion you have with your joints. When muscles are too tight, your range of motion is limited and movement is compromised. Static stretching, which involves moving into a position where you feel a mild stretch and then holding that position for a period of time, is effective at significantly improving your flexibility.
If you want to add a simple stretch you can do almost anywhere to your fitness routine, consider the butterfly stretch. When you perform this stretch correctly, you'll feel a pleasant release in your groin, along your inner thigh and across your lower back. As with any stretch, understanding which muscles you're targeting and using proper form will help you get the most out of the butterfly stretch.
The hamstring is the large muscle that is in the posterior of your leg that connects your glutes to your knee. Learn about using the elliptical for strengthening the hamstrings with help from a fitness expert and competitor in this free video clip.
Muscle recovery from stretching will help relieve soreness and will get back to your proper range of motion. Learn about muscle recovery from stretching with help from a world class professional fitness trainer and nutrition expert in this free video clip.
More commonly known as your hip flexor, your iliopsoas runs from your spine, across your pelvis, into your femur. This muscle has two sections —the iliacus and the psoas — and it is responsible for flexing your hip and rotating your spine. If it gets tight, it affects your movement. Doing a few simple stretches can help reduce its inflexibility.
Whether it's in the locker room or in the pages of a fitness magazine, some muscles seem to get more attention than others. Alongside the abs, biceps and glutes, you'll hear the word “pecs” ad nauseam as you journey into the world of exercise. The phrase is short for pectoralis major, the muscle group that makes up the upper and lower regions of your chest. The upper part is a muscle group called the clavicular head of the pectoralis major.
If you're an exercise newbie or have recently boosted the intensity of your workouts, don't be surprised if your shins start to kvetch. A sudden increase in your level of activity can lead to shin splints, a condition that causes inflammation and pain along the front lower leg. Gentle stretching can help reduce or prevent exercise-induced shin pain as you settle into your new routine. Stretch once or twice a day and during the cooldown portion of your workouts. When you can't leave your desk, kick off your heels and stretch in your chair.
Muscle tightness can lead to muscle tears and other types of injuries during exercise. Before participating in physical activity, warm up your muscles and connective tissue with a light form of cardio and a series of stretches. Stretching your muscles can help you increase your range of motion and flexibility. Stretching can also help reduce the risk of injury on the court or in the field. You can stretch anywhere without the assistance of tools, but a few key pieces of equipment can help you stretch more safely and effectively.
When your muscles are tight, they feel stiff and sore. When you work out, overreaching and failing to stretch your muscles after exercise can cause your muscles to tighten up. They can also tighten up when they have to compensate for the weakness of other muscles, as well as from mental stress. Muscle tightness causes tears in your muscles, so it's important to stretch your muscles, keep them warm and massage them. Stretching regularly and incorporating stretching into every workout will help you maintain loose muscles and prevent injuries. The three main stretching techniques to loosen your muscles are dynamic,…
If you want bulging muscles, daily stretches won’t do the trick. But stretching does lengthen and relax muscle fibers, which can offer a number of fitness benefits. If you’re new to exercise, ask a certified fitness instructor to show you some basic stretches suitable for your fitness program. Also, engage in a resistance-training program and suitable healthy diet, which combined are the only way you can build muscle.
The brachialis muscle is responsible for bending at the elbow. It starts under the biceps muscles and extends from the upper arm bone, the humerus, along the forearm bone, the ulna, to just past the bend of the arm. It bends by contracting and pulling on the forearm bone. Every time you pick up an item or hold a phone to your ear, the brachialis muscle activates in tandem with the biceps. (ref. 1) Brachialis muscle stretches improve the flexibility of the biceps whether or not the biceps are flexed.
The Deadlift is a traditional compound exercises that can help build strength in numerous muscle groups, especially your glutes. One of the largest and strongest muscle groups in your body, the glutes consist of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. Along with helping your lower body to stabilize while performing deadlifts, the glutes are responsible for the extension of your hip as you are lifting and lowering the barbell. Engage your glutes and execute the move properly to prevent lower-back stress and pain.
Trigger points, or muscle knots, can cause pain, tenderness and limited muscle mobility. Some of main culprits for trigger points include: poor posture, overexertion, a sustained injury or birth trauma. Massage, acupressure, application of heat or ice, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are common treatments. Yoga, which stretches the muscles, is another treatment that alleviates the tenderness. Yin yoga, in which poses are held for longer periods of time, concentrates on specific muscle groups and stretches connective tissue. Each of the poses are held for three to five minutes to target trigger points and relieve tension.
The quiet and flowing movements of yoga can effectively stretch and strengthen the body and calm the spirit at the same time. Sitting yoga, or poses are performed while in a seated position, targets a whole range of muscle groups including the glutes, or buttocks muscles, and the hamstrings. Hamstrings are the network of three large muscles that run from your knee up through the back of your thigh. Yoga for the glutes can give you a more toned backside, while sitting poses loosen and strengthen the hamstrings.
You’ve probably heard countless fitness instructors urging you to bend, reach, lengthen and stretch your tense and tight muscles. But just like most things in life, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. So while a reasonable amount of gentle stretching before and after a workout can help mollify your overworked muscles, excessive stretching will only lead to injury.
Your muscles can only grow as far as the fascia -- constrictive connective tissues encasing and holding your muscles in place -- can allow. Also, the natural aging process leads to loss of muscles over time. Under the right conditions, however, proper stretching of muscles causes the fascia to extend, allowing your muscles to grow bigger. Perform stretches at least twice weekly. Seek your doctor’s advice before performing extreme stretching exercises.
If you tilt your head back and turn it to your right, you can feel a large muscle in the neck that runs from your collarbone to the jaw near your ear. The sternocleidomastoid -- or SCM -- muscle can become tight and immobile from stress or having a forward head posture. Stretching this muscle can alleviate neck and jaw pain, making your head feel several pounds lighter.
Muscles contract and stretch in cooperative movements with each other. When one muscle group contracts and gets shorter, your opposite muscle group extends and lengthens. Muscle contraction occurs through lifting, pushing and pulling against a form of resistance, such as your body weight. As such, muscle strength and flexibility are both important for health and athletic performance. Stretching your muscles improves your flexibility and range of mobility, which helps prevent injuries and can improve your athletic performance.
When talking about stretching the hip flexors, the psoas major and minor muscles get most of the attention, putting the iliacus in the shadows. However, the iliacus plays a major role in hip flexion, hip extension and hip lateral rotation. You cannot feel this muscle because it is deep in your pelvis, extending from the iliac fossa at the curving crest of the pelvis to the lessor trochanter of the thigh bone, which is a small bony protuberance in the back and upper part of your femur. Every time you stretch your hip flexors, you are also stretching the iliacus.
Supine is a complicated sounding name for a simple group of exercises. Supine simply means lying on your back, face up. So a supine tuck means you are lying on your back while tucking either your knees or your chin. The supine knee tuck focuses on your abdominal muscle and hip flexors, while the supine chin tuck works on your posterior neck muscles.
Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS for short, is a common side effect that occurs after a new or vigorous workout, including yoga. It typically occurs within 12 to 48 hours after exercise. Unless the muscle soreness is an indication of something more serious, the pain usually subsides within a few days to a week.
Being flexible enough to touch your toes helps you bend over and pick up items off the floor with more ease. However, it’s even more important than that. Not being able to touch your toes is a sign that the muscles on your backside are too tight, which can lead to pain and injury down the line. Improving your flexibility and being able to touch your toes is relatively easy if you’re consistent with your stretching routine.
Aging can wreak havoc on your body—especially if you are genetically prone to certain conditions. This is most certainly true if you haven't kept up with your fitness over the years. Your muscles will lose their strength over time, and unless you lead an active lifestyle in your senior years, your muscles can become stiff. Stretching on a daily basis will help ease stiff muscles in older people and, if combined with a healthy diet and a measure of aerobic activity, can lead to an improved range of movement.
Stretching is an important part of fitness training and exercise. Stretching before a workout is thought to reduce your risk of injury by preparing your muscles for the activity to follow while stretching after exercise helps restore your muscles to their natural resting length. Regular stretching increases your flexibility, the range of movement at a joint or joints. There are different types of stretching, each of which is defined differently.
Stretching is beneficial to incorporate into your training regimen because it can increase your flexibility, decrease your risk of injury and prepare your muscles for activity. There are three major types of stretching, including static, dynamic and ballistic. To build muscle mass, you’ve got to overload your muscles by placing an adequate amount of stress on them. While stretching offers many training benefits, it is not an effective exercise for increasing muscle size.
Exercises that contract the core muscles strengthen the muscles of the abdomen by contracting several other muscles simultaneously in the hips and back. In fact the scientific name for the core region is the lumbopelvic hip complex. Strengthening weak abdominal muscles results in the improvement of posture, balance, flexibility, strength and range of motion in the back and pelvis as well. Some muscles activated by core strengthening include the gluteus maximus and medius, bilateral rectus abdominis, bilateral multifidis and rectus and transversus abdominis.
One of the goals of strength training is to feel that initial muscle pump. You know your muscles are responding to your workout when you feel the rush of blood to the area and see the slight increase in muscle size. When you exercise your biceps with adequate resistance, you will feel the muscle in the upper arm pump up. When the muscle is slightly extended from the workout, stretching may be needed to restore flexibility.
Developing muscle flexibility should be part of an effective fitness routine, along with building muscle strength and improving cardiovascular health. Whether you're stretching before and after a workout to warm up and cool down or stretching as a form of physical activity, certain tools and enhancers can make your stretches deeper, safer and more beneficial for your body.
Regular stretching helps improve muscle flexibility, blood flow and range of motion in the joints. Performing stretching exercises with cold muscles, however, increases the risk of injury. One option is to warm the muscles with light aerobic activity, such as walking. While this will works, a 2001 study published in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research,” suggests that applying moist heat to muscles increases flexibility. You can apply direct moist heat before stretching in various different ways to get your muscles warm and ready to workout.
Your body is comprised of hundreds of different muscles, but a select few often receive the most attention when it comes to fitness routines. While you're likely to hear a lot about triceps, biceps and quadriceps, muscles such as the serratus anterior sometimes can be overlooked. Your serratus anterior muscle covers the side and back of your rib cage, spanning from under your armpit to the middle of your torso. Despite the apparent lack of publicity, this muscle is important, and performing exercises to strengthen it can boost your performance in many activities.
The paraspinal muscles, attached to your spine, move and stabilize your spinal column. Weak or stiff back muscles can lead to poor posture and put you at risk for injury, such as a strained back muscle. Greater flexibility and range of motion can help reduce your risk of injury from sprains and strains. Keeping your paraspinal muscles strong and flexible can help prevent back pain and improve your posture.
Your psoas is a critical muscle in your core that plays many roles in your body. Not only does it help you maintain your posture and support your trunk, the psoas also allows you to engage in physical activities such as walking, running or jumping. Because of its central position in your body's movement, nearly every asana in yoga relies in some way on the psoas muscles. Use these stretches to work this muscle and keep it strong and flexible.
