With last weeks post being a warmup routine, I thought this week needed to be a cool down stretching routine. Stretching after your workouts is not only going to help bring your heart rate down, but also remove the lactic acid that builds up in your muscles over the course of your workout. There are several other benefits to cooling down (stretching) after exercise, like:
• Returns heart rate to normal
• Prevents muscle soreness
• Increases flexibility (because the tissue is warm allowing greater range of motion)
• Slows breathing rate
• Get blood flowing to other parts of the body and away from working muscle groups
There are also different types of stretching you can do, all are very beneficial! There is a full breakdown on my blog about which type of stretching you should do and when, you can check that out here.
Table of Contents
◊ Glute stretch
◊ Open book stretch
◊ Kneeling hip flexor stretch
◊ Thoracic mobility
◊ Adductor stretch
◊ Hip rotator stretch
◊ Back stretch
◊ Chest opener
◊ Quadricep Stretch
◊ IT band stretch
◊ Wall lat strech
◊ Wall pectoral stretch
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Full workout videos on my Youtube channel
Form: Lying on your back. Bend one both knees and cross one foot over the top of the other knee. Grab the bottom leg and pull up towards chest to get a stretch in the back of your glute.
Form: Lying on your side; stack your shoulders on top of each other and place arms straight out in front of you. Bottom leg is straight and top leg is bent and on the floor in front. Keep knee on floor, and take top arm and open it up behind you (allowing your head to follow).
Form: 1/2 kneeling; lean forward into the front foot and get stretch through the front of the knee that is down. If that is not enough of a stretch, reach the same arm overhead as the knee that is down and reach up.
Form: Starting in quadruped position; one arm placed behind your head, reach that elbow down to touch other elbow and then open up towards the ceiling. Make sure you do not move your hips. The goal here is to open up towards the ceiling and increase mobility through the T spine.
Form: kneeling on one knee and other leg straight out to the side, keeping toe pointed forward and foot flat. Arms straight out in front of you, try to sit back on the bent knee and get a good stretch through that inner thigh.
Form: Sitting on your butt with your knees slightly bent and heels on the floor, alternate dropping your knee to the floor between your legs. You want to try to keep you hips flat on the floor and just get a good stretch through the deep rotators of the hips.
Form: Clasp hands in front of you and push back. This is going to stretch out between the shoulder blades.
Form: Clasp hands behind your back and bend forward to open up the chest, shoulder and bicep muscles.
Form: Standing on one leg; grab your foot/ankle behind you and pull towards your butt. You want to also think about driving your knee towards the floor and pushing your hip forward.
Form: Cross one foot in front of the other and reach towards the instep of the back foot. Shift your weight and push your hip out, this is going to stretch all along the outside of the back leg.
Form: Hands up on the wall and lean down placing your head between your elbows. This will stretch all along your sides. If you need a deeper stretch, take a step back and lean down further.
Form: One arm up on the wall and open up to get a stretch through the front of your chest. Place the same side foot forward to get a deeper stretch.
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