Back

1) Stretching in the long seat 2) The “plow

Starting position: sitting on a pad, both legs stretched forward, loose and relaxed with slightly bent knees
Execution: now the back is bent vertebra by vertebra towards the legs and “made round”, the head is taken into the stretch and the chin moves towards the chest, at the point where the stretch arrives at the back, the arms are placed next to (or on) them and the back sinks a little further with each breath

Starting position: supine on a pad, legs stretched, arms lying beside the body
Execution: the legs are now lifted vertically upwards, the hands reach into the lower spine on both sides and the elbows are now resting on the pad (“candle”), the legs are first stretched upwards as far as possible, only the shoulder girdle and the head are now resting on the pad, now the legs are lowered behind the head, stretched or slightly bent until a feeling of stretching is felt in the back and back of the thighs, with good pre-stretching the feet can be placed behind the head.

Symptoms of muscle shortening

Muscle shortening is often caused by one-sided strain on the muscles, poor posture, long periods of sitting every day and lack of exercise. In particular, the muscles of the thigh, back, chest and neck shorten. Also one-sided sporty load such as jogging, cycling or strength training without stretching units cause the shortening of the respective muscles. If the maximum stretching and mobility of the muscles is not performed regularly, this flexibility is reduced. You can also read these texts on this topic:

Agility training
Back school
Posture school
Exercises at the workplace
Posture improvement at the desk – exercises
Sitting correctly

Stretching before or after training?

Also one-sided, unbalanced training with missing stretching units can lead to muscle shortening and injuries. Endurance sports such as running or cycling, as well as strength training, e.g. on machines, can have this effect. The trained muscles can gain volume through training, but flexibility often decreases if they are not trained in the same way.

There are different views on when the best time to stretch is during training. You can find more stretching exercises here: Stretching Exercises

A short stretching session before training can be useful to achieve full flexibility for training and to prevent injuries. However, the stretches should only be kept short.
After the workout, with muscles warmed up, a longer stretching session can be scheduled, where the stretches are held for about one minute.
It is not absolutely necessary to do the stretching unit directly after the training, it can be installed on another day. Care should be taken to stretch all muscle groups that are trained and tend to shorten and to keep the stretch long enough (at least 60 seconds), as this is the only way to achieve muscle lengthening.