When you can barely squeeze a workout into your day, taking time to focus on flexibility may feel like, well, a stretch. But stretching is an important part of fitness: It can improve your range of motion, increase circulation, and calm your mind—which may help fend off injuries and illness, as well as bring on a better night’s sleep. The ACSM recommends stretching each of the major muscle groups at least two times a week for seconds per exercise.
Staying flexible as you age is a good idea. And ensuring that you have equal flexibility on both sides might help protect you from injury.
Before stretching , warm up with five to minutes of light activity. To make the stretch more intense, pull your elbow behind your head as far as possible while keeping the hand of the arm that is being stretched close to the shoulder. For instance, the standing quadriceps stretch mentioned below is a great example of how you can drape a strap around your foot and pull the foot toward you if you can’t quite grasp it with your hands. Best Stretch Exercises for Seniors. In the stretches below, we combine the two aforementioned styles of stretching.
How to Do the Stretches You will need a chair, exercise ball, or bench.