At the beginning of this year, I made a New Year’s resolution to myself to work on my flexibility. For the first few weeks I did yoga religiously. I would stretch a little bit daily while I was watching tv. As the weeks passed I started to stretch less and less. It came to the point that I wasn’t stretching at all anymore. So after my bodybuilding show, I decided I was going to do tested nationals in Charleston, WV. So I built up my training plan and I remembered my goal. Since then, I have incorporated movement warmups before I started and stretching after I finished. Since I have started doing this almost every day has been a great workout and most of them have been PR workouts.
So what is this new regime I have implemented? Well I am about to tell you!
Pre-workout movements:
walking lunges
Walking lunges with twists
Side lunges
Hip openers walking backwards
With 5lb db:
Shoulder press
External/internal shoulder rotations
Lateral raises above head
Back bends over a bench
Post workout stretching:
I focus on a full body stretch with emphasis on the muscle group worked.
downward dog with leg extensions and rotations
Chaturanga into cobra
Seated twist
Child’s pose with twist
Straddle stretch sides and forward
Foam roll
Implementing more movement warmups and post workout stretching are the best things I have done in my training. You always hear people say how important it is to do but how many of us are diligent enough and do it every single time. Not many. However I cannot stress enough how it has changed my workouts. I feel ready to pull, squat and press big numbers after these warmups. My muscles are warm and activated. It gives me a chance to get pumped up for my workout and get “in the zone”. I don’t have the feeling of tight muscles during my working sets because I have properly warmed up. My recovery time is much shorter as well because of my post workout stretching along with drinking plenty of water and getting the right amount of protein. All of this together has made my workouts 110% better. So if you haven’t found a pre workout warmup and post workout stretching regime, I highly suggest you start playing around with some different movements and find what works for you.
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