Three Leg Stretches

Many people have a glaring omission in their workout regimes: Stretching. For many reasons, stretching is just as important as strength training and aerobic exercise. There are several reasons why this is true.

Stretching helps your body by:

• Lessening your risk of exercise and motion-related injuries
• Improving your range of motion and flexibility
• Diminishing soreness in your muscles and muscle fatigue by boosting the supply of blood / nutrients
• Helping you assume correct posture, which helps you avoid injuries

Stretching helps your mind by:

• Giving you time to recharge, think, and refocus
• Releasing stress and tension

Think about how good you feel when you wake up in the morning after a great night of sleep and stretch your body. Now imagine incorporating that good feeling into your workout regime. Staying youthful, limber, flexible, and injury-free means ensuring that your workout structure includes plenty of time for stretching. Whether you simply devote a few minutes of your day to stretches or you take up a yoga regime is up to you—but even just a little stretching added to your exercise plan can reap major long-term benefits.

Stretching Your Legs

For the most effective use of your stretching time, focus on a major body part and work to deepen your flexibility in that area. You can rotate between muscle groups such as arms, legs, and core. If you know that one part of your body is especially tight, take extra time to work through stretches in that area.

Today’s blog post will focus on stretches for the legs. Good leg stretches touch all the major muscle groups in your lower body. You can search key terms such has “yoga poses for legs,” “static leg stretches,” and “dynamic leg stretches” to discover a wide variety of options. Let’s look at just a few in each category.

Yoga for Legs

The discipline of yoga has many health benefits, including increased flexibility. There are many yoga poses that can help you deepen your leg strength, balance, and flexibility.

Try:

• Downward dog pose
• Forward fold (uttanasana)
• Mountain pose
• Runner’s stretch (half-hanuman)
• Tree pose
• Dancer’s pose (natarajasana)
• Warrior sequence
• Hero pose (virasana)
• Half moon pose
• Pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotasana)
• Short downward dog (adho mukha svanasana)
• Wheel pose
• Standing split (urdhva prasarita eka padasana)
• Triangle pose (trikonasana)
• Side stretch pose (parsvottanasana)

Dynamic Stretches for Legs

Dynamic stretching simply means stretching while moving. Not all stretches are still or “static.” Dynamic stretches can open up your hips and help your body prepare for the activity you are about to undertake.

Examples of dynamic leg stretches include:

• Front to back leg swings
• Sideways leg swings
• Side lunges
• Walking lunges
• Lunge with rotation
• Backward lunges
• Toe pointers
• Handwalks

Static Stretches for Legs

Static stretches are exactly what they sound like: Set positions that allow you to focus on stretching and elongating one targeted muscle group, focusing on getting “deeper” into the stretch from a set position.

Here are some examples of static leg stretches:

• Hamstring stretch
• Butterfly groin stretch
• Calf stretch
• Lying hip stretch
• Quadriceps stretch

Learn more about exercise and incorporating stretching into your workout regime at your next doctor’s appointment. If you have questions about rehabilitating from an injury, contact our rehab center at Garfield Medical Center. We are proud to serve families and individuals in the San Gabriel Valley.

This article contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such. The information is not intended to replace the advice or diagnosis of a physician.

If you have any specific questions about any medical matter you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.