Stretching

You've fit in intense 20-minute workouts and slaved away in spin class all week. So when it comes to your rest day, help your body rehab by stretching or taking yoga — it'll complement your normal workout routine to keep you on the right track.

A light workout like yoga will complement all the calorie-burning, high-intensity exercises you do in your workout. That's because stretching your muscles helps keep your body flexible, which is an important component to your workout routine — it will help keep you from experiencing an injury because of tightness, and it will also help you improve coordination. Yoga and Pilates can also help your balance, which is another important component of a safe exercise regimen.

If you've still got the energy in you to work out on your "rest" day, complement your workout with yoga, Pilates, or other types of stretching.

A proper warmup starts your workout on the right foot, prepping both your muscles and lungs for what's to come. Once the staple of readying the body for exercise, stretching has fallen under scrutiny of late. Studies have found that static stretching, holding the stretch for 30 seconds to two minutes, is basically a wash as it neither causes nor prevents injury. And if your workout involves sprinting and jumping, slow passive stretching can result in a loss of muscle strength and power, which is no good if you're in it to win it.

So if slow, meditative stretching is out, how exactly should you warm up? Well if soccer or any other high-intensity sport is your game, orthopedic physical therapist Colleen Birmingham, of the Running Center at CPMC in San Francisco, suggests some dynamic stretching — moves that lengthen muscles while you're in motion, like walking lunges and leg kicks. Active stretches "increase blood flow to muscles in a functional pattern of movement without impairing performance," explains Birmingham, who has a sports conditioning background.

I'm into plyometrics workouts (read: will jump when my trainer says so) and will suffer through speed drills, but the majority of my workouts fall under the low-intensity category — endurance running, cycling, and swimming. For these workouts, Birmingham reminded me that research has shown no benefits to stretching, either dynamically or statically. For this reason, Colleen recommends warming up by going "slow for the first 10 percent of your run, bike, or swim and steadily ramp up. This tactic allows your muscles to warm up so you can go the distance without wasting time and energy stretching." However, Santa Monica-based trainer and owner of Training Adventures, Paul Vincent, likes a short dynamic warmup pre-run complete with "running drills and different muscle activations." For the seasoned Ironman triathlete, the warmup is also a time to assess the state of your body: "The objective is to not only get the body warm, but to check in and see what’s tight or sore so you can deal with that before training."

Get the skinny on race-day warmups when you read more.

After a weekend spent doing Pilates and ballet-inspired workouts, I experienced a type of muscle soreness that was entirely new to me — my inner thighs (aka adductors) were on fire. While I have a series of stretches that I do after every workout, I now realize that none of them really target this often overlooked area. If you've also been neglecting your inner thighs the way I have, here are a few stretches to get you started!

• Basic Inner Thigh Stretch — Here's a favorite stretch of ours, especially for after a run since you can do it anywhere. This basic stretch will lengthen tight inner thighs safely and effectively.
• Butterfly Pose — Also referred to as Baddha Konasana or Bound Angle pose, Butterly pose is one of my favorite ways to end a challenging yoga class. Not only does it get into the upper thigh area, but it's also a great hip-opener that stretches out the lower back, too.
• Wide-Legged Forward Bend E — In ashtanga yoga, although there are technically four Wide-Legged Forward Bend poses, sometimes an instructor throws in a fifth, Wide-Legged Forward Bend E. This deep pose is great for stretching your hips, hamstrings, and inner thighs.
• Frogger — Imagine how you'd look sprawled out like a frog, and you basically have the gist of this stretch. What's great about Frogger is that you can hang out in the pose for as long as you want to really give your inner thighs a good, deep stretch.
• Wall Straddle — The wall is a great prop to use when stretching because it can either support the weight of your body or add resistance. Wall straddle is a great stretch that you can do at home, and it's easy to make the stretch as easy or intense as your body can handle. Just make sure to take your shoes off!
• Side Lunge For Inner Thigh — It's always best to stretch warm muscles, but you can't always be in a place where it's easy to stretch on the ground. That's why this inner thigh stretch is awesome — you can stand up and do it anywhere.

Suffer from tight adductors? What's your favorite stretch?

Indoor cycling offers an hour of sweaty cardio goodness. Your legs power this workout, so it’s best to stretch those tired muscles as soon as you hop off your stationary bike. In fact, that stable bike makes for a great stretching partner.

If you only have two minutes to spare on flexibility training, you should focus on your hamstrings and quads. Start with your hamstrings by resting one heel on the crook of the bike and leaning forward with a flat back, doing this basic hamstring stretch. And if you’re super flexible, you can put your foot on the bike seat. Next, you want to stretch your quads by bringing one heel to your bum, like this to stretch the front of your thigh. Squeeze your glutes and bend your standing knee to increase the stretch, and do hold onto that heavy, stable bike for balance. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds.

If you have a bit more time, you should stretch your glutes. Using the bike, you can do this variation of the ultimate booty stretch from yoga — pigeon pose. Moving down the legs, next on the list is your calves. You can stretch them on the bike by bringing the pedals parallel to the ground (one forward and one back), and dropping your heels to lengthen the muscles on the back of the lower leg (be sure to do this stretch once with the right leg forward and once with the left). Or off the bike, flex your foot placing the toes on the base of the bike keeping your heel on the ground similar to the "kiss the wall" stretch. Lean forward to stretch your calf.

I still have a few more stretches to recommend, so keep on reading.

I have never been a fan of stretching before a run and prefer a dynamic warmup instead. I like to get my blood moving first and save the stretching for a post-run treat. I also feel like stretching a cold muscle can lead to pulls and tears in the tissue. There's another camp that feels quite the opposite: that not stretching before running can cause muscle injury. Well a new study proves us all wrong.

Orthopaedic surgeon Danial Perelas designed the stretching study involving 2,729 runners all with weekly mileage over 10 miles. The runners were assigned to either a stretching or non-stretching group, which required some participants to change their warmup routine and either add stretching or skip it. Unfortunately, the change in routine, rather than stretching or skipping the stretching, proved to be the biggest liability. Runners who altered their routine were more likely to suffer injury. Stretching before a run doesn't prevent injury, but it doesn't really cause it either; what matters most is what your body is used to.

How do you warm up before a run?

Meet Sugar user ku002 and check out the fitness goals she posted in our Get Fit For 2011 community group. By doing so, she entered our weekly giveaway!

2011 Goals

1. Stretch every day! This can be in the form of a yoga class, a quick wake-me-up toe touch when I get out of bed, or a little pause in the workday (in the privacy of my office!). But every day I want to take a mindful moment to stretch and reflect on all the things my body can do for me.

2. Be more mindful about my physical activity. Some days I just zone out on the elliptical and don't get the work that I put the time in for. While this is fine some days (hello stress!), why waste my time if I'm just going to waste my time? On the flip side, I know my activity may not always be the healthiest decision. So I'd like to include some thought into each work out — outlining why I'm doing it and what I want to accomplish.

3. On that note . . . I'd like to run a 10K by September! 5K — check! Now let's step it up!

4. Have fun! With a new rock climbing class this Spring semester, I can't wait to get out there and ROCK IT!

Share your fitness and health goals for the New Year in the Get Fit For 2011 community group and enter to win our weekly prize: a $100 Nike gift card. We're also giving away a fabulous grand prize fitness package!