What benefits can be reaped through stretching?
Here’s your quick list again: Well, obviously increased flexibility would be one. Haha! Relaxing stretches can help speed recovery post training. Now, I’m not saying it will prevent soreness! It has nothing to do with that. But, after training your muscle lengths can be shortened through strenuous contractions. It can take several hours for your muscles to return to their pre-training length. Doing a series of relaxive stretches post training can return them to their pre-training lengths much sooner, reducing the occurrence of chemical and metabolic damages: Hence, facilitating recovery. Stretching is essential as a preventative measure of injury relapse. Just as your muscles are shortened after a training session or after recovering from soreness, your flexibility is even more adversely affected after an injury is resolved. Because an injury, such as a strain, heals at a shorter length after recovery – it is more susceptible to relapse. Regaining lost flexibility through stretching is
