When you think of flexibility, it's likely that the first things that come to mind are touching your toes, or stretching your hamstrings. Unfortunately, those are often the only things that guys consider loosening up before working out, says Sam Stauffer, a trainer for Men's Health Thrive in Philadelphia.
The problem: You use so many other muscles during your workout that just briefly reaching for your feet before you hammer out a total-body circuit isn't going to cut it. Here are the best stretches for every body part.
Feet
You probably don’t ever consider stretching your feet, but it’s a crucial step in the warmup process, says Stauffer. The muscles in the bottom of your foot connect to the ones in your calf and hamstring. So tightness by your toes can potentially contribute to things like poor ankle mobility—which is important to your squat form—or inflexibility in your legs, which can inhibit certain exercises like the deadlift or kettlebell swing. Loosen up this vital part of your body with the foot stretch shown below.
Ankles
Your ankles are critical to big muscle-building movements like squatting, as well as fat-burning tasks like running and jumping. "The more mobile and flexible your ankles are, the greater your range of motion will be when performing almost any lower-body exercise," says David Jack, owner of Activprayer in Phoenix, Arizona, and creator of the Men's Health 60-Day Transformation, a fitness DVD that combines the latest science of fat loss and strength training. To avoid cutting your lower-body performance off at the, well, ankles, try the ankle mobility lunge.
Calves
The calves are the body's shock absorbers, so having tight ones is about as effective has having rusty springs underneath your car. "You calves are integral to things like running, jumping, and squatting. If they're tight when you're performing these different exercises, you're going to end up with knee pain," says BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S., author of Bodyweight Cardio Burners, a high-intensity fitness DVD that will give you the cardio workout of your life in just 20 minutes. Try this simple calf stretch to keep your springs supple and your joints injury-free.
Hamstrings
The hamstring is a typically tight muscle that most guys only attempt to stretch by touching their toes. "Unfortunately, touching your toes doesn't allow you to access the entire muscle," says Gaddour. And since the hamstring is one of the largest in your entire body that's often used in heavy-loaded moves like the deadlift, or power exercises like the sled push, there's a lot of crucial territory to cover. Instead of folding forward, bring your legs up to you.
Quads
We love quad-quaking workouts—they rev your metabolism and burn a ton of calories. But frequently repeating exercises like squats and lunges can hammer your legs, causing a lot of tension in the muscle that can impede later performance, suggests Brian Neale, C.S.C.S., founder of Brian Neale Personal Coaching in Westchester, New York. And since the quad connects both the knee and the hip, the most effective stretch involves both joints at the same time.
Hip Flexors
You probably often hear gripes about tight hip flexors at the gym. They're not uncommon, especially if you sit at a desk all day. "When you sit, your legs are parked at a 90-degree angle from your hips for hours at a time, instead of extended to their full 180-degree range of motion, which shortens the length of your hip flexors," says Todd Durkin, C.S.C.S., owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, California. And that can wreak all kinds of havoc in your hips, thighs, and lower back. Counteract the effects of your desk with this simple hip-flexor stretch.
Hip Adductors
If you've ever felt pain in your groin while exercising, odds are you have tight hip adductors—the muscles you use to bring and hold your legs together. "Very few people pay attention to their adductors before they feel pain," says Stauffer. "And when they do, they think they've pulled their groin when really, they're just tight."
But tight hip adductors can certainly impact your exercise performance because they cause your pelvis to tilt forward, which seriously diminishes your core strength, Stauffer says. And without core strength, you limit your athleticism because you need a strong core for stability, power, speed, and agility. Keep them from locking up by performing the hip adductor stretch shown below.
Piriformis
Your glutes are the biggest, most powerful muscles in your body, so they get a lot of wear and tear. And then you mistreat them by sitting all the time. Unfortunately, this results in tightness and inflexibility in your piriformis muscles, which can seriously sabotage your muscle recruitment or even lead to leg and back pain, says Durkin. To help undo the damage to your glutes, try the pigeon stretch.
Lats
Your lats are important for giving your torso the coveted "v shape", but if they're tight, they'll give you shoulder problems instead. "If you do a lot of overhead exercises, rows, or pullups, it's likely your lats are holding onto extra tension," says Stauffer. Unfortunately, a lot of shoulder and neck pain results from locked-up lats because they limit the range of motion in your upper back. This movement, called the hang-clean stretch, will help you loosen up your lats.
Chest
The chest is quite possibly one of the most over-worked and under-treated muscle groups in the body, says Durkin. After countless workouts of bench presses and pushups, your chest can get extremely tight. It can even cause your shoulders to round forward, giving you a caveman-like appearance and making your hard-earned pecs appear smaller. Loosen the tightness in the front of your body by performing the side-lying chest opener.
Shoulders
There's nothing that sculpts a well-shaped torso quite like a pair of broad shoulders. As a result, a lot of guys hammer those muscles with exercise after exercise. "When you combine the amount of upper-body and shoulder work you do in the gym with the amount of time you spend slumped over a keyboard, the result is a ton of tightness," says Gaddour. To fix it, Gaddour uses an overhead wall stretch to loosen the muscles around the joint.
Neck
The neck isn't often something you think to stretch. "But tightness in your neck actually often comes from tension in your mid and upper back, which is crucial for stability when you're performing lower-body exercises, like the squat," says Neale. So instead of bobbing your head from side to side to feel a slight tug in the muscles at the base of your neck, he recommends performing a cat-camel stretch to loosen everything from your mid-back to the base of your head.
Original article and pictures take www.menshealth.com site
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