Stretch to Prevent Injury, Improve Flexibility and Decrease Blood Pressure

How I Tore a Muscle from Not Stretching!

I told myself that I had one more chin-up in me.  I was doing reps with a 25 lb weight around my waist, and I had to finish this last set.  My sore muscles said,”no,” but my mind said “yes!”

I went for it, and felt a sensation in one of my muscles similar to when you pull apart a sliced cheesy sandwich and the cheese stretches between the slices.  I made another attempt only to experience terrible pain.  #FAIL.

Why did I pull the muscle?  Well, because I did not listen to what my body was saying through the extreme soreness, and I was not consistent with stretching.

Stretching to Improve Flexibility

Stretching is one of those things that we guys especially ignore.  We just want to get on with the heavy grunt work…the cool stuff.  We think we do not need stretching, or that stretching is for wimps or something.

You better throw away that pride before you really hurt yourself, though…like I did.  If you want to continue to lift weights regularly, and healthily, YOU NEED TO STRETCH!

Think about it.  When you engage in strength training of any kind, you are constantly contracting your muscles.  Contractions squeeze and shorten the muscle.  If you do that for a while, your muscle starts to get used to being a bit shorter.  Therefore, you have to stretch it back out.

Note this as well.  Even if you don’t strength train, your muscles shorten and lose flexibility just by your regular living activities.  For example, if you’re like me and you’ve worked a desk job for a long period of time without stretching, it’s almost guaranteed that your hamstrings – the large muscles on the back of your thighs – are tight.

You can test this by doing a standing hamstring stretch where you stand with your legs mostly straight, then bend over and attempt to touch your toes.  You should be able to touch them.  If not, you can largely blame your sitting for several hours.

Regular stretching ensures that the muscles retain their full range of motion.  It also helps you to potentially reduce soreness and decrease recovery time.

Going back to my case, I pulled a muscle called the Teres Major, referred to sometimes as the “little lat.”  I do a LOT of chin-ups…most days of the week, and this particular muscle had begun to become increasingly sore.  I thought that I might be able to work through it, and unfortunately I had been skimping on my stretching because I thought that I lacked the time for it.  Yet another #FAIL.

It took me at least two months for rehabilitation of that 3-4 inch long muscle.  Recovery involved a couple of massage therapy visits, low weight/high reps on an assisted chin-up machine, and LOTS of stretching.  Specifically, the stretches I used were:

• Hanging Arm Stretch – Hold on to a pull-up bar with a forward grip, and slowly allow your self to hang down, controlling your descent with your legs on the ground.  Descend until you feel a comfortable stretch along the sides of your shoulders and your back.  This is an excellent stretch for the Teres Major and the Lats.
• “Pat on the Back” – Lift both arms above your head.  Then, grab the elbow of your right arm with your left hand, pull it to your left side, and bring that right hand down until you begin to touch your upper back.  Your hand should touch between your shoulder blades.  This is also a great stretch for the Lats and other minor muscles.

Another thing to note is, before you work out, focus on warming up versus stretching, and save the stretching for after you work out.  Stretching before a workout can supposedly impair the ability of your muscles to contract.

Stretching to Lower Blood Pressure

Oh, yet another bit of food for thought is, stretching might even help you with your blood pressure!  It’s true!

I came across a study from 2020 in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, in which the findings were that people who performed a whole-body stretching routine 5 days per week for 30 minutes experienced more significant reductions in blood pressure than folks who walked for the same amount of time.

Don’t misunderstand; this doesn’t mean that walking should be neglected. Walking can help blood pressure, and it also is important for reducing body fat and providing the body with the movement it needs. What the findings do provide, however, is yet another reason that you need to regularly stretch your muscles.

Note: The sad thing is that shortly after I recovered from pulling the Teres Major on one side, I pulled it on the other side as well.    I was too “eager beaver” to get back into things, and neglected yet again to listen to my body and pace myself.

Don’t be too cool to stretch, please!  It is not worth it, unless you actually desire to rip a muscle like I did.

You know that you need a healthy lifestyle routine, but you’re not sure of what to do. Don’t worry…we’ll customize a body weight exercise and wellness program for you. Learn more.

Did you know that there are a lot of things you can do to lower your blood pressure without medication? I talk about these things in my booklet, What You Can Do About High Blood Pressure. Order your copy here.