Fitness Routines

Sometimes, I binge watch fitness routines on YouTube and every single time... they all start out with static stretching. I can't stand to watch! As a dancer, one of the first things I learned was not to stretch the second I got into the studio. Before you stretch, you need to warm up OR you can stretch and warm up at the same time by doing dynamic stretching like vinyasa yoga or leg swings and hand walks. This gets your blood flowing and your muscles ready instead of tense and already worked before you work them out.

You are free to do static stretching after you work out so you're not just working out tired muscles but getting them warm and ready to use during your work out. You can go ahead and do static stretches afterwards to get those already worked muscles even more stretched out and ready to rebuild before your next workout.

That being said, rest is the most important part of building muscles. If you don't give your muscles enough rest time in between workouts, you will just be working out already worked out muscles, giving them no time to heal and get stronger before you use them again. That's why I got shin splints in high school. I kept running, no stretching, and (#1) no rest time. I ran every day in hopes of losing weight but that was the wrong way to go about it.

Weight loss is 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. (I'll say it as many times as I need to! Also, rant over.)

xxx

Beth