Stretching isn’t just about improving flexibility; it’s a powerful tool to help you reach and maintain a healthy weight. Your weight is influenced by a complex interplay of lifestyle habits, including diet, activity levels, hormone balance, stress, sleep, and environmental factors. Achieving a healthy weight requires a holistic lifestyle that manages stress, promotes healthy eating, encourages activity, and prioritizes overall well-being.
This article explores how stretching, an often-overlooked aspect of health, can aid in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. While there's no magic bullet for weight loss, adopting a lifestyle that enhances well-being and sustains a healthy weight can be transformative.
Body Basics: Proper Nutrition & Daily Movement
Before embarking on a weight loss journey, clarify your goals. Do you aim to become leaner, boost body confidence, or reduce the risk of chronic diseases like prediabetes or diabetes? Ensure your goals encompass both physical and mental-emotional health. Remember, health and happiness don’t necessitate resembling an Instagram model.
While the number on the scale matters, it's not the sole determinant of health. You can gain muscle, lessen bodily inflammation, and slim down without seeing a change in the scale. Define your objectives and document them to maintain accountability.
It's important to understand that stretching alone won't cause weight loss. However, it can indirectly contribute to achieving a healthy body weight. Weight is influenced by interconnected factors, from daily food choices to sleep quality.
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The true power lies in daily habits that either support or hinder your goals.
The Importance of Nutrient-Dense Meals
Eating nutrient-dense meals is one of the most important daily to-dos. A healthy diet forms the foundation for sustainable weight management. The old adage ‘food is medicine’ holds true: everything you consume either fuels, heals, and nurtures your body or disrupts its processes, potentially leading to weight gain. Processed foods loaded with chemicals can be detrimental, even if they're low in calories. For example, diet soda has been linked to weight gain and obesity. Artificial sweeteners can disrupt metabolism by triggering insulin production and creating cravings for sugary foods.
A balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates is essential. Eliminating processed foods and sugar while prioritizing nutrient-dense options can increase satiety, reduce inflammation, and support healthy weight management.
Staying Active: A Cornerstone of Weight Control
Staying active is another essential to-do for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. The pillars of general fitness are strength, aerobic endurance, and flexibility. Investing in all three is crucial, incorporating cardio, strength training, and stretching into your routine. Beyond structured workouts, everyday activities like taking the stairs, walking, standing up regularly, and stretching contribute significantly to overall movement. Staying active is a crucial lifestyle habit for weight control. “Exercise remains the most common practice among nationally tracked persons who are able to maintain weight loss over time.
Why Stretching Is Important for Weight Loss
Exercise not only burns calories in the moment, but it also increases the rate you burn calories even after you finish your workout. And the benefits don’t stop there. Dr. David Prologo from Emory University highlights the fact that “exercise changes your body’s composition, improves your resting metabolism, and alters your food preferences.” Working out can reinforce other healthy habits while changing your body. Ultimately, the goal is to build a lifestyle that supports a healthy weight from many angles.
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Stretching supports your journey to a healthy weight in several ways. It can reduce muscle tension, enhance blood circulation, improve coordination and balance, and boost energy levels. These benefits can lead to:
- Reduced stress
- Increased relaxation (mentally and physically)
- Enhanced strength and confidence
- Improved sleep quality
- Reduced pain and soreness
When stretching induces relaxation, mindfulness, and energy, it significantly impacts bodily functions.
Stress Management through Stretching
Controlling your stress through practices like stretching is incredibly important for weight management. Stress causes the body to pump out cortisol (cortisol is commonly referred to as the “stress hormone”), which is okay in the short term (like when you need to dodge an oncoming object or give a speech at work), but chronic, unrelenting stress is super harmful to the body. It can lead to health risks like weight gain, a weak immune system, high blood pressure, and elevated blood sugar levels.
The calming effects of stretching can interrupt the cycle of stress, helping you regain control over your behavior and balance the levels of cortisol in your body. When you’re more mindful and less stressed, you can focus on making healthier decisions for your body rather than defaulting to behaviors like eating on autopilot or watching TV rather than getting your workout in.
Muscle Function and Remodeling
Stretching will also help with your muscle function and a concept known as ‘muscle remodeling,’ which is the body’s increased capacity for exercise through physiological, structural, and metabolic changes. From Dr. Prologo: “[Stretching] will help with muscle remodeling, connective tissue strengthening, range-of-motion improvement, joint alignment and potentially blood flow during subsequent exercise.” That muscle remodeling “leads to all the positive benefits of exercise” like an improved mood and weight loss.
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Flexibility Training Recommendations
So how much flexibility training should you do? Our recommendation is to stretch at least a few minutes every day to keep the body mobile, adding longer sessions 2-5x/week (if you’re working on a goal like your splits, try to do at least 3x a week!). If you’re new to stretching.
Stretch for a Good Night’s Sleep (Quality Sleep Is Essential for Weight Management!)
Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep every night, and it’s not just the hours that count: the quality of your sleep matters, too. Getting the right amount of sleep for your body has major health benefits: you’ll boost your immune system, lower your risk for serious health issues like diabetes and heart disease, and help your body reach and stay at a healthy weight. When you don’t get enough quality sleep, it can disrupt your hormones, messing with the body’s appetite signals-causing you to overeat and not feel as satiated. Chronic lack of sleep is associated with a higher risk of weight gain and obesity.
Stretching promotes healthy sleep by relaxing the body and reducing tension. So, let a good stretch lead you to a good night’s sleep. "If you’re sleep deprived, your hedonic drive for certain foods gets stronger, and your ability to resist them may be impaired. So, you are more likely to eat it.
The Habits That Stick Are the Ones That You Enjoy
The healthy habits that stick are the ones that you enjoy and that you'll be able to keep up in the long run. It’s not about dropping a few pounds in the short term; it’s about feeling great in your body, doing things you enjoy, and feeling happier and less stressed.
We don’t always have the time to hit the gym or go to a fitness class. But the great thing about stretching is that it's easy to squeeze into the busiest of days because you can do it anywhere! In your bedroom, living room, or maybe even your office. Taking 15-minutes to stretch is a simple way to stay fit on the hectic days (and remember, it’s important to be building a lifestyle that involves moving every day!). It may take some motivation to start, but even after just a few minutes of stretching you'll feel 100% better than when you started. The feel-good nature of stretching is one of its benefits that will keep you coming back again and again (we like to joke that stretching is addictive-and there's some truth to that! Your body starts to crave the feeling of a good deep stretch). After a while, it won’t be so hard to push yourself to get on the mat. Plus, working on a goal like your splits is rewarding and motivating. It gives you a reason to stay excited about working out.
The Take-Away: Use Flexibility Training to Support Your Journey Towards Reaching a Healthy Weight
In the end, the pounds won’t melt away just because you’re flexible-but stretching is an amazing tool that you can use to stay active, lower your stress levels, get better sleep, and overall feel better in the day-to-day. That’s a lot of reasons to keep stretching! All of these factors will help support your goal to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Types of Stretching Exercises
There are different types of stretching, each with its own benefits:
- Static Stretching (SS): This involves holding a stretch for a prolonged duration (usually 30 seconds) without causing pain. It can be active (without assistance) or passive (with external help).
- Dynamic Stretching (DS): This involves controlled movements that progressively increase the range of motion through repetitive motions.
- Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stretching (PNFS): This involves both contraction and stretching of the muscle, initially developed to relax muscles and increase muscle tone.
Benefits of Stretching
Stretching offers numerous benefits, including:
- An energy boost
- Increased stamina
- Stress relief
- Pain relief
- Improved posture
Practical Stretching Exercises for Weight Loss
Practical stretching exercises, all of which can support your weight loss efforts, can improve:
- Flexibility
- Enhance muscle function
- Reduce injury risk
Stretching can also ease soreness and help you recover faster so you can return to workouts. Specific stretching exercises target multiple muscle groups to improve flexibility and stability, which can help you perform better and burn more calories during physical activity.
Cat-Cow Stretch
The cat-cow stretch is a great way to start your stretching routine. This exercise involves transitioning between arching and rounding your back, promoting spinal mobility and flexibility.
To perform the Cat-Cow stretch, follow these steps:
- Start on your hands and knees, with your wrists aligned under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
- Inhale as you arch your back (Cow position), lifting your head and tailbone towards the ceiling.
- Exhale as you round your back (Cat position), tucking your chin and tailbone towards your chest.
- Repeat this sequence for several breaths.
The cat-cow stretch improves spinal flexibility and reduces back pain. This exercise can relieve tension and discomfort by gently stretching and mobilizing the spine, making engaging in other physical activities easier. Incorporate the Cat-Cow stretch into your daily routine to keep your spine healthy and flexible.
The Cobra
The Cobra works your:
- Shoulders
- Back
- Chest
- Abs
- Hips
- Obliques
How to do it:
- Firstly, stretch your hands at your sides and lie down on your mat with your feet together.
- Lift your upper body.
- Lean your head back.
- Hold this position for about twenty to thirty seconds.
The Seated Twist
This stretching exercise targets your:
- Back
- Your abs
- Your obliques
How to do it:
- Sit down on your mat.
- Stretch one leg in front of you.
- Bend the other …
Importance of Proper Technique
Before you plunge into stretching, make sure you do it safely and effectively. While you can stretch anytime, anywhere, proper technique is key. Don't consider stretching a warmup. You may hurt yourself if you stretch cold muscles. Before stretching, warm up with light walking, jogging or biking at low intensity for 5 to 10 minutes. Consider skipping stretching before an intense activity, such as sprinting or track and field activities. Some research suggests that pre-event stretching may actually decrease performance.
Strive for symmetry. Everyone's genetics for flexibility are a bit different. Rather than striving for the flexibility of a dancer or gymnast, focus on having equal flexibility side to side (especially if you have a history of a previous injury).
Focus on major muscle groups. Concentrate your stretches on major muscle groups such as your calves, thighs, hips, lower back, neck and shoulders.
Don't bounce. Stretch in a smooth movement, without bouncing.
Hold your stretch. Don't aim for pain. Expect to feel tension while you're stretching, not pain. If it hurts, you've pushed too far.
Make stretches sport specific. Some evidence suggests that it's helpful to do stretches involving the muscles used most in your sport or activity.
Keep up with your stretching. Stretching can be time-consuming. But you can achieve the most benefits by stretching regularly, at least two to three times a week. Skipping regular stretching means that you risk losing the potential benefits.
Bring movement into your stretching. Gentle movements, such as those in tai chi, Pilates or yoga, can help you be more flexible in specific movements. Also, try performing a "dynamic warmup." A dynamic warmup involves performing movements similar to those in your specific sport or physical activity at a low level.
If you have a chronic condition or an injury, you might need to adjust your stretching techniques. For example, if you already have a strained muscle, stretching it may cause further harm. Also remember that stretching doesn't mean you can't get injured.