So I’ve started now to run again about once a week since this has been one of the most ridiculously beautiful, mild springs ever on record here in Northeast Ohio. What I’ve begun to notice though is that my calves are starting to bulk up a bit, as they always do, when I run.

I tend to get bulky in a lot of places. My quadriceps also get bulky, and basically anywhere on my leg can get bulky. What I try to do to counterbalance getting bulked up, which is the opposite of what I want – I want to slim these parts on my body down, not make them more bulging, is do exercises that complement the bulking without furthering it.

Let me explain. I do stretching types of exercises such as pilates and yoga. I also make sure I stretch my muscles out right after I work them to help keep them looking “longer” and leaner instead of the muscle bunching up and becoming larger.

Pilates is an excellent exercise regimen to pair with things like running, jogging and weightlifting because it helps to keep your body long and sleek, and keeps the muscles conditioned to stay that way.  REMEMBER to always wear a great pair of shoes for running too – this is paramount for good form and injury prevention.

It also helps to tone them, and helps keep you more limber and lithe throughout your entire life. Being able to stretch and move around and stay flexible becomes more and more important as we age. It helps keep disease at bay and helps keep you mentally sharp and ready to spring into action at any time.

It also promotes good circulation and improved immunity (at least yoga does, I’m not sure I can say that about pilates, pilates are more of an appearance and strength exercise).

To get my calves nice and stretched out after a hard run, and to keep the muscles from cramping up, I do an extended downward dog. This is the inverted triangle pose that is a yogic posture. It’s excellent for loosening up the neck since you are inverted toward the ground and the gravity is taken off of you. It’s also excellent for the calves and the backs of the legs because it keeps them stretch out and warmed up.

I would only recommend doing this stretch after your run, not before since it’s a static and not dynamic stretch. Remember, dynamic stretches should be the stretch of choice before a run (this is the type of stretch where you are moving and getting the circulation going and the muscles warmed for action).

I can’t tell you how many times my husband tells me he’s pulled or otherwise strained a muscle when working out. It’s pretty common, especially the older you get and the less you stretch. As I always remind my hubby when he complains of this, you MUST stretch your muscles adequately before working out.

Read this past story about the importance of flexibility as you age for more on how vital this is to continued health and mobility as you age.

You can do a more dynamic stretch, like jogging in place or doing something that gets the blood moving, or if you’re going to do something like yoga, static stretches should be just fine. The key is in holding them long enough to actually stretch the muscle. Many people don’t hold the stretch long enough, and the muscle isn’t “pliable” enough to avoid injury or strain when they begin the hard stuff.

Stretching after your workout is absolutely crucial, and too many people either skip this step or they don’t do it for a long enough period. Stretching the muscles back out after they’ve been contracted for long periods of time is important in stretching the muscle back out and avoiding later pain and discomfort.

You should have a stretch session of at least five minutes after every workout, and make sure your muscles feel loosened back up when you’re done.

One of the worst muscles on me after working out tends to be my hamstrings. They are always tight. So I find myself stretching those several times throughout the day when I’ve worked out. It really helps to make my whole body feel loose and relaxed when just stretching that one large muscle.

Getting in a sauna is also a huge help. We use our infrared sauna all the time after a hard workout. It really relaxes you and deeply penetrates your muscles so that they stretch much more easily and are less prone to soreness and injury after a hard workout.

You can also sweat out some of those toxins that you may not have gotten out of your system during the workout, which helps to reduce muscle pain and discomfort after working out.

I love to get a massage when my muscles are tight. I actually prefer to get a massage after a hard day at work, which is when my muscles are most tight. I have a desk job, but sitting all day is far worse for your muscles than moving around all day. They stiffen up and become painful and contorted from stress and sitting in one position for too long.

If you want to read more about back pain and sitting too long – read about how exercise helps control back pain, a previous post I wrote about the challenges of having a desk job and having neck and back pain as I do from previous car accidents.

An important objective to keep in mind when starting on a fitness campaign is different ways to achieve and preserve your flexibility.  Flexibility isn’t just a concern for the fitness gurus as it is absolutely necessary to maintain your flexibility for everyday functioning.

It’s especially imperative as adults age to maintain flexibility.  Normal activities of daily living such as bending down to tie your shoes or reaching for items on high shelves involve a reasonable preservation of flexibility.

When flexibility is severely limited, even simple tasks like dressing yourself become either challenging or no longer possible.  Another very good incentive to maintain or improve flexibility is to decrease the possibility of injuries.

Muscles that are too tight are often a source of pain upon movement that will frustrate anyone trying to exercise to win the battle of the bulge.  When planning out your exercise routine, flexibility should be a part of your goal, but not your only focal point.

Achieving flexibility doesn’t mean that you should aim for being able to do contortionist activities.  As with anything, increasing flexibility should not go to that extreme.  If you try to take it to that extreme, you could risk injury by stretching your muscles too far.

What you should be doing is incorporating some stretching exercises into your workout routine.  You can do some stretching before and after your other workout activities.  Another good way to incorporate stretching into your activities is to do pilates or yoga along with your other physical activities of choice.

Working some stretching into your physical activities will help you to avoid injuries.  For runners and joggers, stretching your muscles will help to minimize the effect of pounding on your joints.

Golfers may notice an improvement in their swing when the muscles of their shoulders are not as tight and become looser and more flexible.

Probably the most important part of your body to benefit from improved flexibility is your back.  Your back is more prone to injury, spasms and pain when your muscles are tight.  Patience is required for the improvement of flexibility.

Often, it can take a person months to master a new yoga pose.  Flexibility goals will be different for every individual.  It will depend on your limitations of range of motion and general level of fitness when you start working on your flexibility.

Increasing and maintaining flexibility should be done in conjunction with physical exercise that builds strength.  Ideally, you’ll want to strike a balance of these two fitness goals to remain healthy and functional.

Many of us suffer from back pain. Whether it is from an injury we had, or from simple stress and genetics, back pain can be an all encompassing pain that really is life interrupting if you don’t know how to manage it.

Many people think, intuitively, that when you are in pain, you should stay still and this will help. That is exactly opposite of what is true. Staying still, and leading a sedentary lifestyle where you get little movement and sit in a chair a lot is the WORST thing you can do for  back pain.

Moving around helps to loosen up the muscles, get the blood flowing, and perhaps most importantly gets enorphins and pleasure chemicals released in the brian, which helps to offset any of the pain you might be feeling in your back. The same goes for neck pain, and often times back, neck and shoulder pain go hand in hand.

Think of moving as lubing up the body. It helps to loosen the joints, and also helps to keep you mobile and agile as you age and  your joints, bones and muscles inevitably become less elastic and more prone to injury.

Exercises like yoga, swimming and water aerobics are excellent for those that exeperience back pain. The elliptical machine is a great way to get your cardio in if you have a sensitive back or joints in your leg that act up, since it has almost zero impact on the muscles and the joints.

Walking is an excellent workout for those with back pain. In fact, just walking and standing in the upright position helps us to stay mobile and flexible, whereas sitting and laying down really allow the muscles to atrophy and to become inflexible.

It’s all about maintaining movement and flexibility in the body.  If you have a desk job, make sure you get up and walk around once every hour. If you can’t actually get up and walk around, make sure you at least stand up from your chair and move around your cube or office, or stretch your back.

If you are going to do yoga for your back pain, be mindful that some poses are not back friendly if you are not flexible enough yet, and must be eased into instead of forcing your body into them. This can actually create more pain or result in injury, so take it slow.

Many exercises for flabby arms also help to ease back pain, such as supermans and kickbacks, all of which help to strengthen the lower back and help prevent back pain and weakness.

If you asked me this question, I’d say it’s of vital importance. Some people may disagree, or may think that less of it is required than I do.  That is because for me, I’ve found that warming up and cooling down before and after my exercise sessions helps me immensely when it comes to avoiding injuries and discomfort from the exercises that I do during those sessions.

Warming up is even more important than cooling down for me, becuase I find that I don’t feel strains in my muscles or uncomfortable pulls when I’m working out if I do an adequate stretching session.  Adequate to me is about 3-5 minutes, although some people may do more than that.

I’ve gotten my warm up pretty much down to a science though, where I know my own body well and I know what the buzz spots are, so to speak, where I typically might feel pulls of discomfort if I don’t adequately warm those areas up.

It’s been proven time and time again that those who warm up their muscles have less occurrence of injury and pulls.  This is because our muscles are literally like a rubber band. When we strain them or press them to their fullest, if they are cold, they are less stretchable and elastic, thereby making them rigid and not as easily manipulated into movement.

They can strain, snap, and stretch too far when they are in this state, whereas when they are warmed up, they are more able to get into these positions easily. 

Now let’s talk about cooling down. For me, I like to cool down because I hate getting right off a piece of equipment and going about my day.  If I do this, then it feels like I’m going to pass out, because I haven’t given my body time to cool down from the vigorous activity that I just put it through. 

Cooling down means that you don’t just run off and start your normal life after doing stressful cardio or weight lifting, but rather, you stretch your body again, working out the kinks taht the exercises may have caused in your muscles yet again.

I’ve found that cooling down and stretching AFTER working out for me, is almost as important as the warm up, because it allows my muscles to slowly recoup themselves, and prevents them from tensing or bunching up again after my exercises.

I am constantly on my husband about stretching before and after he works out. He never does it, and always wonders why he easily gets injured. While I can get him to do it occasionally, he stubbornly believes that he doesn’t need to stretch before he exercises, especially if he’s just weight lifting.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth. You should always warm your body up before you work out, no matter what kind of workout you’re doing. Think of your muscles as a rubber band. If you warm a rubber band up, it would be less likely to snap and break or tear because you’ve warmed it by stretching it out, making it more pliable and less brittle.

Your muscles are really no different. They need to be warmed up, stretched out, and made more pliable by physically warming them up. Why do you think so many people get injured when they’re moving heavy furniture, or doing things where they would not normally warm their bodies beforehand?

It’s because they haven’t warmed that muscle yet, and go right into using it when it’s still in a sort of dormant, brittle state.  This is how you get muscle tears, pulls and over extensions.  I’ve done it myself, and guess what? It was always when I knew I had not adequately stretched my muscles and gotten them warmed up!

It’s especially easy to do it when you haven’t been as active in a while. Doctors see an influx in patients with injuries in the spring time. People tend to over do it in the spring because they’ve been couped up all winter long, and tend to get outdoors and go overboard, or go overboard with their other exercises in the spring time .

That spring fever hits, and you forget that your body isn’t adequately prepared to be vigorously worked any more.  It’s especially important when your body isn’t used to physical activity, to make sure that you feel those muscles are “warm” before attempting anything like running or jogging, or doing any type of vigorous, high impact working out.

Dynamic stretching, which is light jogging in place, or moving one part of the body like the arms, to warm up the muscles and get the blood pumping to the muscles so they can become warmer, is very good for any type of workout. In fact, dynamic stretching should be done before working out, not static stretching, which should only be reserved for after the workout.