The Importance of Stretching

Hello!

How are you doing today? I hope you had a good day.  My lower back was killing me today and I thought about skipping my weights workout, but I did it anyways and I feel alot better! Most of the time when my lower back is bothering me it makes it hurt even worse if I sit most of the day or am not active.  I was wondering why it was feeling like that, but after my workout when I started stretching I figured out what the problem was.  I should have known that it was because my hamstrings were tight.

You see, for some reason my muscles will get rediculously and unusually tight and it takes alot of stretching and massage to make it normal. My shoulders used to be rock hard all the time from tension and tight muscles and even if I massaged them daily it didn't help all that much. It is something that I have kind of just gotten used to, but every once in a while it gets so bad that I can't ignore it.  I should probably just stretch every morning when I get up, after my workouts, and then every night before I go to bed but I haven't made that a habit yet. Maybe I will have to try that out and see how it works.

I always try to stretch after I run but most of the time I don't spend as much time on it as I should. I also need to have a warmup that I do as a routine before each workout.

Tomorrow my run is supposed to be 3 miles! I actually really wanted to go running today because I saw some people outside running when I went to the post office.  I love seeing people running, it really encourages me and I always want to cheer them on!

How about you? When you see people running does it make you happy? Do you have any suggestions for a good warmup? How often do you stretch, and for how long?

-Hannah