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Warm-up stretches

Perform this sequence of stretches only after you have warmed up the muscles. Remember that yourwarm-up is the key to unlocking tight muscles, which is the cause of injury. Read the notes on how towarm-up prior to performing these stretches, and also the information on stretching techniques andstrecthing exercises, for those new to stretching.

Hold each stretch for a minimum of 20-30 seconds, breathing slowly through your nose, aiming to exhaleout through your mouth as you ease into the stretch.

For best results, push against a wall.

Easy : Calf Correct Foot Position

Foot alignment should be shoulderwidth apart, you can confirm this bystanding either side of a straightline on the floor.

When you take your rear foot back,

it should not cross or move awayfrom the midline, your foot shouldbe pointing forward with your heeleither flat on the floor, or raised ifaiming to develop the stretch.

Your front leg should bend so thatwhen you look down over yourknee, you can see the tip of yourtoes. Lean forward aiming to keep astraight line with your heel, hip and

head.

EasySoleus

1. Stand with both feet flat on thefloor, pointing forward, half a strideapart.

2. Keeping your back straight, withyour hands on your hips, exhale andlower yourself down, resting your

bodyweight on the rear foot.

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Easy Normal Stretch

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, one foot extended halfa step forward.2. Keeping the front leg straight,bend your rear leg, resting bothhands on the bent thigh.3. Slowly exhale, aiming to tilt bothbuttocks upward, keeping the frontleg straight, and both feet flat onthe floor, pointing forward.4. Inhale slowly, and relax from thisstretching exercise. Repeat the stretchagain, this time beginning with thetoes of the front foot raised towardthe ceiling, but keeping the heel onthe floor.

Easy Quadriceps Standing

1. Stand holding onto a secure object,or have one hand raised out to theside for balance.

2. Raise one heel up toward your

buttocks, and grasp hold of your foot,with one hand.

3. Inhale, slowly pulling your heel toyour buttock while gradually pushingyour pelvis forward.

4. Aim to keep both knees together,having a slight bend in the supportingleg.

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Easy Side Lunge

1. Stand upright, with both feetfacing forward, double shoulder-width apart.

2. Place your hands on your hips, inorder to keep your back straight,slowly exhale, taking yourbodyweight across to one side.

3. Avoid leaning forward, or takingthe knee of the bent leg over yourtoes. As you increase the stretch,the foot of the bent leg should pointslightly outward.

4. To increase the stretch, relaxupward, slowly sliding your feet outa few inches to the sides.

Moderate Leg Over

1. Lie on your back, extending yourleft arm out to the side, while takingyour left leg over your right, bringing

the knee inline with the hips.

2. Keeping your right leg straight, useyour right arm to push down on theknee of the left leg, exhaling slowlyas you stretch.

Easy Fetal Position

1. Lie on your back, keeping yourhead on the floor.

2. Slowly pull both legs into yourchest, and secure them there bywrapping your arms around theback of your knees.3. Exhale, pulling down on your legswhile gradually lifting your buttocksoff the floor.

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4. You can stretch your neck, oncein this position, by slowly tiltingyour chin to your chest.

Easy Spine curve

1. Begin the stretch by laying on yourfront, with your hands close to yourchest, fingers pointing upward.2. Exhale, pushing yourself up withyour arms and contracting yourbuttocks while keeping both feetfirmly on the floor.3. Look up toward the ceiling, to alsofeel the stretch in your neck.

Easy Bar Twist

1. Stand with both feet facingforward, double shoulder-widthapart, with legs slightly bent.2. Use the bar to keep your upperbody straight, with elbows high, asyou slowly twist around in bothdirections.

3. Avoid moving at speed, or forcingthe stretch

Easy Lower Back-Cat Stretch

1. Adopt a position on all fours, pointyour fingers forward and your toesbehind.2. Start with a flat back, and thendrop your head downward, pushing

your shoulder blades upward andoutward as you elevate your upperback.

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Easy Elbows Back

1. Stand or sit up right, keepingyour back straight, head lookingforward.2. Place both hands on your lowerback, fingers pointing downward,elbows out to your side.3. Exhale slowly while gently pullingthe elbows back, aiming to getthem to touch.

Easy Shoulder Strangle

1. Cross one arm horizontally overyour chest, grasping it with eitheryour hand or forearm, just above theelbow joint.2. Exhale, slowly pulling your upperarm in toward your chest.3. Aim to keep the hips and shouldersfacing forward throughout thestretch.

Easy Bicep-Wall Stretch

1. Place the palm, inner elbow, andshoulder of one arm against thewall.2. Keeping the arm in contact withthe wall, exhale and slowly turnyour body around, to feel thestretch in your biceps and chest.3. Adjust the hand position eitherhigher or lower and repeat tostretch the multiple biceps andchest muscles.

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Easy-ModerateHand Down Spine

1. Extend one hand down the centerof your back, fingers pointingdownward.2. Use the other hand to grasp theelbow.3. Exhale slowly, pulling gentlydownward on your elbow, aiming totake your fingers along your spine.

Easy Upward Stretch

1. Extend both hands straightabove your head, palms touching.

2. Inhale, slowly pushing yourhands upward, then backward,keeping your back straight.3. Exhale and relaxing from thestretch before you repeat.

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Easy Chin to Chest Front

1. Place both hands at the rear ofyour head, fingers interlocked,thumbs pointing down, elbows pointstraight ahead.2. Slowly exhale, pulling your headdownward, aiming for your chin totouch your chest.3. Concentrate on keeping your backstraight, with your shoulders downand back.4. Relax your hands, and inhale asyou lift your head.

There's are a wide range of additional warm up stretches, stretching advice and evencool down exercisesin the NetFit site - as well as even more being available for a small monthly fee in our members area.

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Cool Down StretchesOn completion of your workout or sporting activity, it's important to bring your heart rate back down slowlyand gradually prior to easing into a number of suitable stretches.

In your cool down period, keep moving such as walking at the end of your run, to prevent your musclesfrom becoming locked up by blood pooling - (basically poor blood flow).

It's worth wearing warm clothing if it's cold, in order to keep the muscleswarm prior and during your stretching.

Hold each stretch for a minimum of 20-30 seconds, breath comfortably, with deep breaths through yournose, and out via your mouth.

Below you'll find a number of our favourite stretching exercises that we know help to alleviate not onlypotential injuries, but also to maximise the stretch for that muscle group.

Try all of them, but do not put too much pressure on your muscles for the first stretch. We have alsograded them to help you understand which may be the best for you to try first.

The more time you spend stretching your body, the greater the understanding you will have of the benefitsthat your giving it.

Easy Calf Raise Down

1. Stand on a raised platform, on the ballsof your feet, holding onto a secure objectfor balance.

2. Exhale, slowly dropping your heelsdown towards the floor and allowing yourtoes to raise naturally.

This movement can be performed usingeither one or both feet.

Hamstring and Quadricep Muscle Stretch

As your performing these stretches on the floor, it may be wise to lay on a towel, especially if your a littlesweaty. These stretches are designed to ease the tension in your hamstring (back of upper leg) musclesand also your powerful quadricep muscles, those at the front of your thighs.

Its important that you have given your body a chance to recover from your workout, so that both your

heart rate and breathing have returned to a comfortable level. If your unable to hold a conversation, thenspend a few minutes performing a very low level aerobic exercise , such as walking, taken in deepbreathes to help bring down your heart rate and breathing rate to normal levels.

Stretching whilst your body is still trying to recover will result in your muscles not being able to stretchcorrectly.

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Easy Lying Straight,Leg to Chest1. Lie comfortably onyour back, concentratingon keeping both your

head and buttocks incontact with the floor.2. Slowly extend one legupward, grasping it withboth hands, eitheraround the calf, thehamstrings, or acombination of both.3. Aim to pull your legtoward your chest,keeping it straight. When

the tension builds up inyour hamstrings, relaxthe stretch a little bycontracting yourquadriceps on the sameleg.4. If necessary, use atowel wrapped aroundyour foot, in order tokeep your head on thefloor.

Easy Stretch Lying

1. Lie on your side,aiming to keep both theknees and the inside ofyour thighs together.

2. Extend the lower legout straight, keeping thetop leg bent, and onehand grasping the foot.

3. Exhale, pulling the foottoward your buttockwhile you slowly pushyour pelvis forward.

4. Use a towel wrappedaround your foot if you

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can't reach your footcomfortably.

Now move onto the next page to learn how to perform the inner thigh (adductor muscles) stretch and

those of your outer thigh (glutes).

Inner Thigh and Glut Stretch

The inner and outer thigh muscles are often forgot about when performing stretches, however thesemuscles are often the cause of a lot of injury problems.

Sports such as football and those require lateral (side) movements can often cause the adductor (innerthigh muscles) to be overstretched. Performing the simple toe grab inner thigh stretch will help to relievethe tension build up within the muscle region.

The biggest muscle in the body (Gluteus maximus) i.e. the muscle in the buttock, performs a number offunction, and as such is often overworked and tense. Tension in the glut muscles, can cause a verycommon complaint such as sciatica, as the muscle tension places pressure on the sciatic nerve.

To avoid both of these problems, make sure you include the following stretches into your cool downroutine.

Easy Toe Grab

1. Begin this stretch withyour heels together,holding both feet withyour hands.

2. Lean forward from

your hips, graduallyincreasing the stretch bybringing your heelscloser to your groin, andyour chest closer to yourfeet.

3. Make the movementssmall and controlled.

Avoid bouncing andexcessive upward

pressure on your feet.

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Moderate One LegOver

1. Sit on the floor, withone leg straight, toes

pointing upward.

2. Cross the other footover the knee of thestraight leg, aiming toplace that foot flat on thefloor.

3. Place the elbow andforearm of the oppositearm of the bent leg on

the outside of the bentknee.

4. Exhale, slowly pullingthe bent knee acrossyour body.

Your core muscles, those of your abdominal area and obliques are always working to keep you body ingood alignment, you may not think that your working these muscles when performing an exercise such asa bicep curl, however they are always needing to be contracted to enable the movement to take place.

Learn how to stretch the abdominal and oblique muscles on the next page.

Abdominal and Oblique Muscle Stretch

Relieve the tension build up in the muscles of your abdominal and oblique area, with these simplestretches.

If you find that you don't feel any tension - don't force into the stretch, simply relax and take themovement a little further, however always within your own limits.

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Moderate Looking atCeiling

1. Begin the stretch bykneeling on the floor,

holding your heels withboth hands.

2. Slowly exhale, liftingyour buttocks up andforward while taking thehead backward, in orderto arch the back.

Easy-Moderate LyingTrunk Twists

1. Lie flat on your back,with both handsextended straight out toyour sides.2. Slide both legs uptowards one arm, aimingto keep the kneestogether, whilst allowingyour lower body tonaturally twist around.3. Can be performed with

either bent or straightlegs.

The next page will help you stretch one of the main problem areas of the body - the back!

Back Muscle Stretches

The following stretches will help you remove the tension in your upper back and neck.

If you suffer from lower back pain , our members area has a massive section dealing with stretches andadvice on how to help with such conditions.

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Easy Upper Back-LegGrab

1. While seated, exhale,bending forward, and

hugging your thighsunderneath with botharms.2. Keep your feetextended out as you pullyour chest down ontoyour thighs, keeping bothknees together.3. While in this position,you can also stretch yourrhomboids, by aiming to

pull your upper backaway from you kneeswhile still grasping yourlegs.

Moderate Upper BackPrayer

1. From a kneelingposition, extend bothhands out, fingerspointing forward.

2. Use your hands andforearms to grip the floor,as you gently ease yourbuttocks backward, untilyou feel the stretch inyour upper back andshoulders.3. Exhale, gently easingyour chest down towardthe floor.

Easy-Moderate Lying

Neck Pull

1. Lie on your back, withboth legs bent, feet firmlyflat on the floor.

2. Grasp the back of your

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head with your fingers,resting your palms on thetop of your head.

3. Exhale, slowly pulling

your chin down towardyour chest, and aiming tokeep your upper back incontact with the floor.

For those that have just finished any upper body or sporting exercise the next page will help you stretchout the muscles of the chest and biceps.

Chest and Bicep Muscle Stretch

A lot of people that begin a weight training program , spend too much time working the same twomuscles groups, namely those of your chest and biceps.

The problem with wanting to get rapid gains in both the strength and appearance of these muscles, is themuscular soreness and tension that gradually builds up.

If a combination of rest and stretching is not done between workouts, then the tension within the chestand bicep muscles, will simple cause the shoulders to roll forwards, having a total negative effect on anystrength training program , especially if done for appearance reasons.

These simple chest and biceps stretches should be performed at both the end of your workouts, and alsobetween sets if lifting a high number or heavy weights.

Moderate One ArmAgainst the Wall

1. Place your forearmand biceps against awall, keeping the arm atright angles.

2. Exhale, slowly turningyour opposite shoulderbackward, keeping theother arm firmly incontact with the wall.

3. Repeat this stretchboth raising and loweringthe walled arm, in orderto work the differentpectoral muscles.

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Easy Bicep-WallStretch

1. Place the palm, innerelbow, and shoulder of

one arm against the wall.

2. Keeping the arm incontact with the wall,exhale and slowly turnyour body around, to feelthe stretch in your bicepsand pectoral muscles.

3. Adjust the handposition either higher or

lower and repeat tostretch the multiplebiceps and chestmuscles.

The last two stretches are for your tricep and shoulder muscles.

Tricep and Shoulder Muscle Stretch

The final cool down stretches are for your tricep and shoulder muscles.

Due to the fact that your shoulders have such as vast array of movements, you may wish to perform other

suitable stretches for this muscle group.

Easy-ModerateHand Down Spine

1. Extend one hand down the center ofyour back, fingers pointing downward.

2. Use the other hand to grasp the elbow.

3. Exhale slowly, pulling gently downwardon your elbow, aiming to take your fingersalong your spine.

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Easy Hands Interlocked Over Head

1. Interlock your fingers above your head,palms facing upward.

2. Exhale and push your hands furtherabove your head.

3. You will also feel this stretch in yourshoulders.

Our members area has the Internets largest selection of different muscles stretches, plus warm up advicefor a number of different sports.

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