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Range of Motion is the Answer to a Pain Free Body

By: Dan Boyle

I am not going to lie. If I were an athlete, I would be kicked off the team. Because of my fear, it has taken me 3 months to fully get over my broken ankle. It just makes me think of Terrel Owens when he played for the Eagles.

He broke his ankle, or maybe it was a sprain, but it took him maybe three weeks before he was playing again. That is truly incredible. Being an Eagles fan, I think I remember him coming back and playing terribly.

The point of telling this little remembrance of mine is that I have finally started my yoga again... and WOW I am really really bad at it. My range of motion is horrendous!

Range of motion is really important in every aspect of your life. Think about how stiff you feel during the day. Your lower back may hurt constantly, or pains all over your body may occur. This is most likely due to a really bad range of motion.

Some muscles are tighter than others causing other to be to stretched out and pulling your body into a terrible posture. This is why at The Art of Weight Lifting we concentrate an entire training on Flexibility. Whether you are a believer or not when it comes to stretching, it has been proven that stretching increases your joints range of motion.

The benefits of a great range of motion are numerous...

1. Less Pain

For starters, you will experience less body pains. These pains are almost always caused by posturial dysfunctions. This is how it works in the body. Lets look at the Hip Flexors.

The Hip Flexors one of the tightest muscles in the human body. This is because we spend a great amount of our time sitting down. I know I spend a great amount of time in front of the computer. So the hip flexor is shorter in length pulling the hips forward. This in turn stretches out the glutes and hamstrings.

A common dysfunction of this is forward pelvic tilt.

You fix this by stretching your hip flexors bringing things back in balance.

2. Better Results

With an increased range of motion, you weight training is going to flourish. You will be able to easily put your body into positions that allow for maximal muscle tension and use.

For example, squating past horizontal can really explode your results... but most people have such bad ranges of motion, just getting to horizontal is a task in itself.

The same applys with exercises like dumbbell benching, lunges, deadlift, flys, etc...

3. Better performance

Performance means anything athletic. If you play sports, you will be more nimble and have the ability to make better moves. For example... soccer.

The range of your kick can be greatly increased. That with weight training will give you a very powerful kick and make you a start player.

You can also benefit from a boost in other performances... if you know what I am saying!

So work on your range of motion with Flexibility Training. Take the flexibility training one step further and practice yoga. While it can be really difficult, it is one of the best ways to make sure you increase your range of motion and fight postural imbalances.

Article Source: http://www.bluearticles.com


Dan Boyle is a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer. He has studied and mastered some of the greatest ways to increase your range of motion. To learn more powerful ways to stop the pain in your life and increase your range of motion, visit http://www.fitness-analyzer.com

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