How to get flexible fast?

Rough routine and tight hamstrings with stiff hips and sore muscles? It is time for you to work out and loosen them up. There are several techniques to calm your muscles and relax them to continue your routine work. 

Different people desire to have a flexible body but do not work to have one. This is usually because most of the flexibility training looks weird and a form of torture. A person folds into a painful position and stays in the same posture for ten minutes, which looks awkward to certain people. 

How to Get Flexible Fast?

Stretching is one of the exciting parts of working out, and flexibility is necessary too. It is essential for a well-rounded fitness routine as cardio and strength work. Incorporating stretching exercises can help you improve efficiency and safety during a workout by reducing tightness and improving flexibility. 

One of the clinical directors at Professional Physical Therapy said that: Due to tighter muscles, undue strains on the adjacent joints can occur while working and can somehow injure them. Our muscles get less elastic and shorter with the growing age; subsequently, we should take an active role in improving and maintaining our forces' length to enjoy our abilities with ease and no pain. 

Stretching is not hardcore neither glamorous and certainly does not give you the same rush that a HIIT or run class will provide. According to Cyrelson, it takes time and is also uncomfortable; therefore, people usually avoid it. Anyhow, you can go for cardio and strength training without putting yourself at risk for pain and injury. Your muscles will end up imbalanced by doing a ton of work, which will contract the muscles by shortening them by never stretching them. Due to imbalance in the body, the risk of injury increases because they can cause some joints and muscles to overcompensate. This leads to discomfort and strains.

Besides, when your muscles are stretchy and loose, they are less bound to follow the workout pattern. Henceforth, this helps you move them more comprehensively. For instance, a more significant range of motion in your knees and hips will help you to sink deeper while doing squats. Therefore, once you have a greater ROM, it will help you do more exercises with ease and comfort. 

The instructor called Charlee Atkins at Soul Annex known as a creator of Le Stretch class, tells that SELF likes to use the word mobility in the place of flexibility to hammer home to show the importance of stretching and its daily uses. According to him, it is about an everyday thing, which becomes more challenging by the growing age, such as walking stairs, bending down, getting up off a couch, and picking your kids from the floor. These activities can become more comfortable by improving and enhancing your mobility; subsequently, you can move more freely and easily. 

Improving your mobility and flexibility is not hard, as it just takes a little time. Try to add stretches in a workout to make yourself flexible, which Atkins demos in the routine work to show how to relieve muscle tension by increasing mobility. 

Here are some of the points that you can follow to enhance mobility.

Try The Standing Stretch

1. Make sure to stand straight and bend your arms and knees.
2. Lower your head and keep the direction toward the floor. Now, start exhaling. Make sure that your arms and knees are relaxing.
3. Wrap your arms around the back of your legs and maintain this posture from 45 seconds to two minutes, at least. 
4. Last but not least, bend your knees by rolling up once you are done. 

Stretch your back, hamstrings, neck, glutes, and calves to relax.

Piriformis Stretch:

You can easily perform a Piriformis Stretch by following the method below. Here is what you can do. However, keep in mind that it's one of the best ways to do stretching. This is the reason many people are doing it for a while now and are seeing good results.

1. Extend your legs in front of you and sit on the floor
2. Place your right foot on the floor and cross your right leg over the left one. 
3. Place your hand behind your body on the floor.
4. Now make sure to place the left hand on your left elbow or your right quad and press the right hand to left one while twisting to the right. You have to twist your torso.  
5. Take it out if the spinal is bothering your back, you can easily use your left hand instead of pulling your right quad. 
6. Stretch your back, glutes, and hips to relax down. 

Lunge with a spinal twist:

As per Atkins, this stretch is usually known as the World's Greatest Stretch in the fitness sector, and for the best reason, it is necessary to help with the pain that is posture-related or for the people who sit for a more extended period for any work or things like that.

1. Stand straight with your feet together.
2. To stay in a staggered stance, take a more significant step forward with the left foot.
3. Keeping your right leg, bend your left knee and drop into a lunge
4. Twist your upper body to the left and place your right hand while extending your left arm towards the ceiling. 
5. Hold for 30 seconds, prolonging it to 2 minutes.
6. Repeat it for the other side as well. 

Stretch your quads, back, and hip flexors. 

Triceps stretch:

1. Stand tall, sit, or kneel with feet and hip-width apart, and arms extended over your head. 
2. Reach your right hand to touch the top middle of your back by bending your right elbow. 
3. Grasp just below your right elbow by reaching your left hand over your head. 
4. Gently bring your right elbow down towards your head.
5. Repeat it with the other arm.
6. Stretch your triceps, neck, back, and shoulders. 

The figure for stretch:

This stretch method stretches the iliopsoas and piriformis muscles, especially the flexor and hip rotator forces, along with the IT band. It is a gentle and excellent approach to relieving the symptoms linked with knee and sciatica pain. Besides, it is best because of the passive nature of any of the specific poses. 

1. Lie down on your back with feet flat on the ground. 
2. Cross your left foot 
3. Lift your right foot off the floor. 
4. Stretch and hold there when you feel comfortable.
5. Hold for 30 seconds and continue it for 2 minutes.
6. Switch on to the other side. 
7. Stretch lower back, hips, hamstrings, and glutes.

90/90 Stretch:

This particular pose helps in internally rotating one of the left by externally rotating the other side, so you are hitting both of the hip movements. 

1. Hold your right knee by bending it on the 90 degrees, make sure that the sole is in the right direction, and calf perpendicular to your body. 
2. Let your leg rest.
3. Keep the right buttock cheek on the floor and move the left by getting closer to the floor. 
4. Hold it for the first 30 minutes; then you can try it for 2 minutes.
5. Repeat the same for the other side as well. Make sure that you are doing it right for good results.  

Stretch your hips. 

Frog stretch:

1. Slide your knees; make sure they are wider than your shoulder and start it on all of the fours. 
2. Rest the inner edges on the floor and turn your toes out. 
3. Turn your hips back to your heels. 
4. If possible, move your hands from forearms in this way, you will get a deeper stretch.  
5. Hold it for a while. You can hold it for around 30 seconds if you want.

Butterfly stretch:

1. Knees bent out to sides, sit tall on the floor with your sole together. 
2. Engage your abs, hold onto your feet or ankles. Then lower your body for best results.
3. Press your knees down, if your back is too stiff to bend over.
4. Maintain this stretch for a while.

Stretch your back, hips, thighs, and glutes. 

Final Word

Get specific with your stretching routine and keep a track record of the types of stretches you go for. The answers to what you need to know and explore are within you, and your specific needs and current condition says it all. 

People need to maintain and continue stretching and different exercises to keep the progress coming towards them. To keep the pain away, use your new ranges of motion, and always move your body through a specific motion range. This way, your body will protect your muscles and reinforce strength into them. However, if you feel that you don't have time to do all these exercises, you can also try different types of yoga for flexibility. Yoga is also good for your health and will provide you with good results as well.

References:

• Amy Marturana Winder, C. (2020). The 21 Best Stretching Exercises for Better Flexibility. Retrieved 29 August 2020, from https://www.self.com/gallery/essential-stretches-slideshow
• Jarlo Ilano, O. (2020). 4 Tips for Developing Flexibility Fast. Retrieved 29 August 2020, from https://gmb.io/get-flexible-fast/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5908335/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3503322/