Why is stretching important?

Physical therapy

﻿Hello there, my name is Sophie Brazier, I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today for our lesson. So we are in unit four, and we are looking at stretching and today we are going to look at why stretching is important in lesson two. So what we'll do first is we'll have a look at some benefits of stretching and then we'll look at why it is important. And then we will finish with an activity, and today our activity is going to be an overhead body stretch. That sounds nice, doesn't it? So for the activity you would just need yourself, there will also be some options to modify the stretch and if you need any help from a carer or parents, then if you want to ask them now and then we can get going. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So you may be watching this as a child by yourself, or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities, and each lesson, we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using, or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist. So, please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions, or would like help tailoring this to their needs, then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. So you might be wondering, what are the benefits of stretching, and is there really any need to stretch. So I think that these are quite good examples of why you should stretch. So let's go through them now and we can have a further look. So, some better stretching, increased blood flow. So if you're stretching and you're moving, and you're relieving that stiffness and that tightness you might have in that area, you're introducing new blood flow to the area which is good, because if you've had any injury or if you've got some niggles or some stiffness, then increased blood flow to the area can help with any inflammation, or if you've got any injury in that area, it can bring fresh blood to the area. So, it's really about keeping your body healthy by bringing that fresh blood and moving it around your body. And it can help with pain and stiffness. So, there's probably a lot of people that on a regular basis feel a little bit of stiffness in their muscles and their joints. And sometimes associated with this, you can get a little bit of pain which is what we don't want. So, just by stretching and moving regularly, we can help relieve some of these things. So if you think back to unit one where we looked at posture and we looked at changing position, this unit actually links in quite nicely with unit one. So introducing stretches and a change of position can work really nicely together. So it can improve joint stability. So if you have got good length and muscles, you've got some strong muscles, so thinking back to the previous unit in unit three, where we looked at muscle strength, if you've got strength and you've got good length in your muscles, then those two can really complement each other. And your joints will be nice and stable because your muscles we'll be working well around the joint. It can relieve tension. So just think about it, if you've sat in a position for a long period of time, just by rolling your shoulders, say stretching out those muscles or changing your position can relieve a bit of tension, or if you've got a stiff neck, just by maybe turning your neck to the side or back again and turning the other way. And you maybe rotating round can just relieve a little bit of tension. So even really simple structures can help. And it can prevent pain and injury, so again that links in with pain and stiffness. And again, with joint stability, we want to prevent these things happening. So, if you're incorporating this into your daily routine, then hopefully we will have injury free bodies. And it can increase the range of movement. So, associated with stiffness, if you're stretching an area and if you're regularly working on that area and that joint, then you might see a change in the range of movement. And if you have a programme that you're working on, that you've been given where you're looking to increase range of movement then I suggest that you stick with that plan, the stretches that I'm giving you aren't specific to a joint, and they're not specific to an individual. So they're quite general structures, so we won't be looking at increasing lots of range of movement, and we won't be looking at progression. The idea is that I'm giving you some really nice ideas of gentle stretches that you can do and build into your daily routine. So as you can see, there are lots of benefits and structures, and now we just go into a little bit more detail about why it's important to stretch. So if you think about stretching, it is actually quite an instinctive action. So, just think about when you woke up this morning, did you stretch your body when you wake up? Or have you yawned in the last hour, and when you yawned have you gone, aaaah, and done a big stretch with your arms? Maybe not that exaggerated but they are quite instinctive actions and stretching can be quite automatic. Spending time in still postures and static postures can lead to stiffness and tight muscles. So, remember to think back to unit one on posture and if you need to go back and have a look at that unit, please feel free to do that. And if you're stretching, it can help relieve this tension and it can help you changed position and it can release where that stiffness that you might have. Regular stretching can just become part of your daily routine. So this last point here is really important. So, remember to think about your breathing. Now, I personally think this is a really important thing to do, because when you're holding a stretch, sometimes if you really think about your breathing, it will help you relax into a stretch a little bit more, and you'll see a little bit later on in some of the lessons, I will explain a little bit about how to use your breath when you're stretching. And I also think that thinking about your breathing, and slowing your breathing down can really help calm your mind. So, just remember some of those techniques and we will think about them a little bit later on in the unit as well so don't worry. Let's move on to the activity now. So I would like you to try an overhead body stretch. So the starting position is in sitting, so you could do this on a chair or a stool, and I want you to slowly raise your arms above your head in line with your ears. And what else I'd like you to do is to open your palms and really stretch your fingers out. And you're going to stretch your arms up as much as possible but try to keep your shoulders relaxed. Which sounds a bit strange but you'll see in the video that I'm going to demonstrate the best way to do this, and you can also use your breathing to help with this. And I'd like you to hold your stretch for between five and 10 seconds as a starting point, and if you want to increase the time you hold for then feel free and just remember it's about where you feel a stretch and then back off if it's too much, and then maybe go back into it. And as a starter, you could try and repeat that five times. Okay, so you'll see here that I'm in a seated position, I am taking my arms up above my head, and I'm really keep my fingers active. So I'm creating a really big stretch reaching up to the ceiling. And you'll see here that I initially take my shoulders kind of up to my ears. So when I first do the stretch, automatically your shoulders lift up and then you'll see my shoulders drop down. So that's where I'm using my breath and my breathing to really relax into the stretch. So your initial position you might lift up, and your shoulders raise, and then you'll see me drop my shoulders as I breathe out. So maybe try breathing in as you take the stretch up, and then as you hold the stretch, maybe take a big breath out and you'll feel that you actually relax into the stretch a little bit more. So watch again, I take my arms up, my fingers are nice and active, I breathe out, and I am relaxing into the stretch. And you'll feel this stretch, all the way through your arm muscles and probably across the top of your back. So it can be a really nice stretch and you're being quite active in your hands, so you're getting a good stretch all through your upper body and across the top of your back. So here in sitting, if you'd like a bit more to that stretch, you could perhaps add in a little side stretch. So you see I take my arms up to the starting position, and then I relax my shoulders a little bit, and then I just lean to one side, and you'll feel the stretch down the opposite side. So each time you can come back to the middle, and then you can bring your arms back down, and then you can take your arms up, and you can really stretch over so you'll feel a nice stretch down that opposite side and you'll see here I'm pointing to the side where you will feel the stretch. And then I returned to the middle, still breathing while I'm holding the stretch, and then I'm showing you again, you're feeling it down, so I'm feeling on my right side when I stretch to my left. So here I'm demonstrating that you can extend the stretch again, by turning your gaze to look around your arm. So you're almost taking your gaze up a little bit and you'll feel slightly more of a stretch. So you can try that one if you like. So here, you'll see that I'm doing a little twist while I'm doing an overhead stretch. So this just adds another little bit of an extra stretch to the overhead body stretch. So still in a seated position, you can reach up but let your shoulders relax and then you can twist a little bit to get a stretch in the upper part of your back. And now I am showing you how to do the same exercise but it isn't a standing position. So, a slightly more challenging position to be in, or you might quite like this stretch. So you're in a standing position, you're taking your arms up above your head, and you'll see as I take my arms up, I'm really keeping active with my hands, my shoulders are rising up, and then I breathe out and I let my shoulders go. And you'll feel that real stretch across the back and through your arms. Say take your arms up, keeping a nice strong posture, and then really let your shoulders drop and you'll feel a whole overhead body stretch. So here I'm demonstrating the overhead body stretch in a lying position. So this just might be a way to change the stretch if you find it a bit difficult in sitting or standing, you could do it in a line position. And I have my knees bent to begin with, and then another option is to straighten them out if you're able, and you take your arms up above your head with your palms facing each other, and you're keeping your fingers active, and you'll feel that stretch in your shoulders and across the top of your body. And remember to use your breath when you're doing that stretch. So now I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at that stretch. If you rejoin me afterwards, I'll talk you through some of the ways to extend and simplify as I demonstrated in the video. I'll now go through some ideas of how to extend or simplify the activity. So let's think about this activity a little bit more of the overhead stretch. So if it was too much in sitting, you can try the same activity in lying, and I demonstrated that in the video with some options to do in lying. If you would like to add more to this stretch, then try the stretching standing. And I also demonstrated that in the video, so you can see how to do that if you need to go back. And you could add a side stretch, either in sitting or in standing. And you could also add a gentle twist and I demonstrated that in sitting there for you. So pause the video now, have a go at those options, see what works for you, and then please rejoin me afterwards. So that brings us to the end of our lesson today. I hope you found out a little bit more about the benefits of stretching, and it's giving you another idea of a nice body stretch to try. Remember that you can just incorporate these stretches when you wake up in the morning, if you're sitting in postures during the day, so that body stretch can be done in any position in sitting, lying or standing. So thanks for joining me today. Please join me next time for lesson three, where we will be continuing on the topic of stretching, but we'll have a little focus on the types of stretches and also a little bit about technique of stretching. And the activity I will show you will be a stretch for the muscles in the front of your legs, say your quadriceps and your thighs. And all that leads me to say now is thanks again, have a great day and I'll see you soon. Take care, bye.

Why is stretching important?

Why is stretching important?

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