Stretching Exercises for the Arms

Series Summary

Exercising, combined with appropriate dieting is a great way to manage your weight and maximize your flexibility. Stretching is an important part of warming-up before a good workout. Did you know that stretching is also a great way to wind-down after a workout? By stretching your muscles, you lengthen and lubricate them, giving the muscles protection from tears and other injuries. By stretching after a workout, you increase your static flexibility.

In this series of videos, you will learn the appropriate method of stretching. Learn how to stretch your arms before and after lifting weights. Stretching your back muscles will also help in your range of motion. By incorporating yoga-like moves into your stretch routine, you can elongate the muscles even more. Watch our expert videos on stretching the biceps and chest as well as the buttocks and neck area. Stretching the hamstrings and calf muscles of your legs is important before weightlifting and running or other cardio exercise. Get expert tips on these stretches and more from these informative videos.

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Angela on behalf of expertvillage.com, and right now I’m going to show you how to properly stretch your arm. It’s extremely important to do this, especially if you’re weightlifting before and after because you’re putting a lot of strenuous activity on your arms. If you don’t do this, the next day your arms will be just absolutely useless. You want to make sure your stance is very straight; posture is amazing. What you want to do is your right arm, and just horizontally bring it across your chest. Don’t hyper-extend it over here, that’s not necessary, it’s just comfortably. Then you want to take your other arm and make sure it’s above the elbow joint. This arm is going to apply the little pressure that you need for this stretch. What you’re going to do is just apply the pressure gently to where it’s comfortable yet you can still feel the stretch, and hold it there for about 15-30 seconds. Don’t do this; don’t hyper-extend or go like that. It not only cause discomfort, it’s not good for your muscle. You just want to do this gently. After doing that, just apply it to the other arm as well, that same amount of pressure. Also, you want to be careful, when someone is in a hurry and they’re in the gym trying to stretch really quickly because they want to do their weightlifting, and you see them do this movement. It’s very bad and it actually does more damage than it does good. So what you want to do is take your time and make sure that you do the stretch properly so that there is no damage after weightlifting. "