Your Body: The Benefits of Stretching
February 28, 2007
Its a simple and common task, stretching, or is it? Then why are so many players getting injured today with pulled muscles? Is it because they are over exerting themselves, are they not properly warming up and cooling down? Its hard to say but, the one thing I do know is that soccer players in general need to stretch out more frequently than they commonly do.
Stretching your muscles has numerous benefits such as; increased flexibility, enhances fitness level, develops body awareness, increases mental and physical relaxation, reduces potential muscle soreness and risks of potential injury to joints, tendons and of course muscle pulls and tears. Given the benefits, I’d say stretching should be a must but do we really understand the practice of stretching?
Brian Appleton put together a great resource on "How to Stretch" that I would recommend you read. Brian does an excellent job of laying out the process of warming up, stretching and cooling down your body prior to and after physical activity. This is an excellent resource for any player, coach, referee or individual wanting to learn better technique and practices for stretching.
I bring this fundamental activity up because I see so many players, especially at the grassroots level not taking the appropriate measures to ease their bodies into strenuous activity. Its very common to see kids young and old get out on the pitch and start taking shots at a goal without a proper warm-up and stretching routine. Moreover, it is our coaches and parents responsibility out there to help educate and set expectations for our kids to prevent injuries. In fact, it would do us all good to stretch or do activities such as Yoga or Pilates more often. For some soccer-specific stretching exercises here is a good link.
If you want to achieve great flexibility and posture as well as prevent injury, all the resources referenced here are a great place to start understanding the importance and benefits of stretching.
– Jason
** Jason Cronkhite is co-founder and CEO of Ziga-Zoga,
one of soccer’s
newest community-based websites. A former college soccer player,
and coach Jason’s background includes sports marketing, branding and interactive
marketing/media. He can be reached at jcronkhite<at>zigazoga.com
.
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One Response to “Your Body: The Benefits of Stretching”
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Jason, you are so right. It’s shocking to see players at every level take a jog around the field, do 30 seconds of toe touches and start whacking the ball.
Other than increasing the risk of injury, not warming up correctly shortens muscles and negatively affects performance.
At he age of 54, I like to have an hour to work up a sweat and then fully stretch. Although I have broken my toes, nose, cheekbone, a wrist(3 weeks ago), and had many stitches in just the last 3 years playing ball, I haven’t missed a game. Haven’t had as much as a pulled hammy.
I wish I knew this stuff when I was 15.