Stretching programmes

What is stretching?

When talking about stretching we refer to increasing ‘flexibility’ or ‘length’ of muscles. Often patients can confuse this and strengthening of muscles. Strengthening muscles refers to the contraction, shortening or increasing tone of muscles whereas stretching is the opposite.

What are the benefits of stretching?

 1)    Helps decrease pain associated with stiffness and trigger points.

2)    Helps increase blood supply

3)    Helps improve joint movement

4)    Helps decrease muscle tension

5)    Helps improve posture

6)    Helps prevent sports injuries

7)    Helps the prevention of injury recurrence

Most sporting injuries occur as a result of a lack of muscle flexibility. A stretch session as we all know can be very boring. We must hold the stretch for a minimum of 15 seconds repeating the stretch for at least 7 reps in order to see any increase in length. Most of our sporting patients attend the clinic for regular Deep Tissue Massages and Dry Needling sessions to help maintain or improve their flexibility. Muscles can plateau when it comes to flexibility. Do you ever think ‘ I stretch and stretch and I still done feel like I’m improving’ – well if you feel you are at this point dry needling can really help improve your muscle range. In turn this is will help you perform better and also minimise your risk of an injury.