Basic Posture for Stretching Exercises

Series Summary

There are many benefits to a routine of stretching exercises. Many people want to lose weight, and despite claims for quick fat burning pills and powders, the best way to lose weight is still through proper diet and exercise. Exercise does more than just maintain physical fitness though. Working out can also help build healthy bone density, muscle strength, and joint mobility. It can also reduce your general health risks, boost the immune system, and help with depression and insomnia. Whether your reason for exercising is to lose weight, or improve muscle mass, working out is always a good idea to help promote the health of your body and mind.

In this free video series, learn how to do some simple stretching exercises. With these tips, you can increase your flexibility and your health. Our expert, Maryam Askaar, shows you how to stretch your neck, legs, hips, arms, and much more! So, if you are interested in stretching out your body, watch this free video series today!

Video Transcript

"Today we'll be doing a stretch class. So let's discuss the principles and posture on stretching before we get started. Some of the things that you want to be thinking about throughout all of the exercises is staying pulled in through your center. So making sure the abs are engaged. The key is to keep the abs engaged and at the same time inhale and exhale. Ideally, you want to be able to inhale and exhale through the nose. This is something that will definitely come with practice. So to start if you feel you need to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth that's perfectly fine. You want to make sure your breaths are long. Inhale is long and the exhale is deep and long as well. If at any time you find you're holding your breath or you lose your breath that means you need to ease up possibly modify or come out of the posture. Bring your breath back to a steady pace and then go back into the stretch. Each time you exhale is when you'll find you go deeper into your stretch. This is very important. The easiest way and the quickest way to progress in your stretching is to keep a really strong deep exhale. Each time you exhale you should feel the body release just a little bit. So as far as the posture goes you want to make sure again your abs are pulled in and your shoulders are down. At some point I may ask you to round through the spine. If so, I want you to think about pulling in through your center first. The deeper you pull in through the center the more you'll see your spine round right, rather than hunching through the shoulders or just rounding through the spine you'll consciously pull your abs in which causes the spine to round. Also, I might mention hinging or keeping a flat back. If I ask you to keep a flat back you'll keep your shoulders down and have a strong straight spine. Again, this comes from keeping the abs pulled in. You're going to think of hinging from the waist so you're always going to want to think about pulling up and over with a strong straight spine ok. So again, keeping the breath deep, keeping the abs pulled in, shoulders relaxed. If you lose any of the posture, if you don't feel your posture is 100%, again you want to ease up or modify so that you are in a perfect place of posture and breath. This way you'll see the posture, you'll progress a lot quicker through the posture. Ok, so again keeping everything intact and in line is most important."