Exercise a good idea; stretching first essential

All stretched out? Stretching before you exercise is integral to building muscle tone and promoting flexibility.

“Tight muscles are not functional muscles,” said Helen Lawson, a personal trainer in upstate New York.

Without a good stretch before your workout, you may not be able to do an activity to the best of your ability, and you could even injure yourself. But not stretching also means you are overbuilding some muscles at the expense of others, Lawson says.

Muscles work in opposing pairs, and when one gets worked up or activated, the other can get tight or inhibited, says Josh Haase, a Gold's Gym personal training director. Without stretching the inhibited muscles, and activating them, you can end up with unbalanced bulk, a beefy chest and forearms, for instance, and a back that just doesn't measure up. Stretching is a way to re-balance your workout, bringing your body into alignment by activating all its muscle groups.

Stretching can also guarantee that you're working the muscles groups that you mean to, making your workout more effective by laying the burden on the body's biggest calorie burners, Haase says. A workout that relies on fully activated lower-body muscles like quads, glutes and hamstrings is going to burn more calories than a workout that relies on the cold or inhibited muscles, he says.

You can run a 5K without stretching, Lawson says, but your hamstrings and glutes are going to be cold and tight when you start and even tighter when you finish, and you're not going to get the workout you would have if you had stretched first, Lawson says.

Lawson likened cold, tight muscles to a rubber band that's been left to sit in a drawer. Over time, the rubber band becomes stiff and loses its elasticity; ultimately, when you pull on it, it breaks. Regular stretching keeps the rubber band loose and pliable, strengthening its flexibility and improving its capacity.

Stretching has been proved to reduce stress and prevent injuries, Haase says.

Ready to get your stretch on? Haase has provided some basic stretches that activate large muscle groups and help ensure an effective workout:

First, warm up your muscles by doing a brief bit of general activity. Before you stretch, spend five to 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, treadmill or bike, Haase says.

After a warm-up, stretch your pectoral muscles by standing in a doorjamb, feet together and parallel with the wall. Hold the right arm up with the elbow at a 90 degree angle from the body and your forearm pressed against the inside of the doorjamb. Your arm should be slightly lower than your shoulder joint. Now lean forward toward your toes, keeping your forearm pressed against the jamb, and feel the stretch along the top of your chest. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and then do the same stretch with your the left arm. Repeat.

To stretch your calves and quads, turn and face a wall, and take one step forward with your right foot. Your feet should both be facing forward, and be almost in line with one another. Bend your right knee forward and feel the stretch along the front of your right leg and the back of your left leg. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, and then do the same stretch with your left side. Repeat.

To stretch your hip flexors, stand on bended knee, your left knee on the floor and your right knee bent at a 90-degree angle from your body. Squeeze your glutes, and as you do, lift your left arm straight up in the air above your head, and then lean it back and to the right. Feel the stretch in your left side, hip and quad. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds before lowering your arm and performing the stretch on the other side. Repeat.

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