Why Stretching is Good For Your Health

Dr Handicap - stretching feet

Stretching is often overlooked when it comes to improving your health. To us this seems crazy, as not only can stretching boost your energy and your mood, it can also improve your posture, decrease your risk of injury, and even lower your cholesterol. Don’t believe us? Here are seven reasons why stretching is undeniably good for your health.

It improves your posture

Having good posture is very important for overall physical health. By slouching and bending all day, you could potentially be doing irreparable damage to your spinal column. When you stretch, you’re lengthening tight muscles along your spine to keep it in the position that it’s meant to be in. By stretching your chest and shoulders, you’re also making positive moves to keeping your spine well aligned. When you have correct posture, you’ll notice that chronic back pain may start to cure itself as you’re sitting and standing in the way that you’re meant to.

It decreases the risk of injury

When you stretch, not only are you correcting your posture, you’re also lengthening out muscles that would otherwise be scrunched up tight in your body. Muscle tightness is a prevailing cause of injury, especially in people who don’t get a lot of exercise. As well as reducing the likelihood of injury through loosening muscles, stretching also enables your muscles to receive more nutrients from your body. When more nutrients are supplied to your muscles, they’re much less likely to be sore. If you’re already injured, stretching will speed up recovery in both muscles and joints by ensuring that the injured area is getting all of the nutrients that it needs.

Dr Handicap - woman stretching back

It improves your balance

Everyday use of the same muscles can cause them to get tight, especially muscle strain caused by carrying a heavy bag or backpack. By stretching each morning and when you come home each night, you’re alleviating this muscle tightness that builds up during the day. When your muscles are less tense and tight, you’ll find that your balance is improved, which will make a surprisingly noticeable difference to the way you carry yourself.

It makes working out easier

If you have a handicap parking permit for weight-related issues, no doubt you’re working out in order to make yourself a little healthier. Though working out on its own is an amazing way to lose weight, it’s even better if you do some pre- and post-workout stretching. By stretching before you work out, you’re essentially waking your muscles up and getting them ready to get down to business. After you work out, your muscles are bound to be tight and sore; stretching here can relieve tension in the areas that you’ve been working out, and lessen that post-workout soreness we all get.

It boosts your energy

One of the main reasons that users of a handicap parking permit don’t get enough exercise is simply because they don’t have the energy to do so. So what if we told you that engaging in daily stretching will give you that all-important energy boost? When you’re tired and lethargic, your muscles freeze up and get tight. By stretching and loosening them out, you’ll feel an instant boost in your energy levels – this is why many people stretch when they wake up. Even if you’re stuck at your desk, standing up and doing some minor stretches there and then will give you a major energy boost. Not only will you feel your energy spiking, you’ll also feel a noticeable boost in your mood as you feel ready to take on the world again.

Dr Handicap - woman stretching by water

It lowers cholesterol

Teamed with some good exercise and a healthy, high-fiber diet, stretching has been proven to reduce cholesterol. This is particularly important for those who use a handicap parking permit for heart-related reasons, as having a lower cholesterol is especially good for the heart. When you have low cholesterol, your arteries de-clog and become less hard, which in turn prevents heart injury and attack.

It makes you more flexible

The only way to improve your flexibility is by completing daily stretching exercises. By improving your flexibility, you’re improving your range of motion, meaning you’re able to move about quicker and easier. When your ability to move about has been improved, you may feel like you don’t need to use your handicap parking permit anymore, which can only be viewed as a good thing in health terms. By improving the way you move, you’ll find that your body needs less energy to do the same movements that you usually do like walking, running, or cycling.

We hope that these amazing reasons are enough to encourage you to include more stretching in your daily routine. You don’t have to do an hour-long stretching session each day; just a few small stretches on each part of the body when you wake up and go to sleep would make a huge difference to your life. If you need more help in getting back to your healthier self, get in touch with us and we’ll organise for you to get a handicap parking permit to make getting back on track that little bit easier.