Burn Calories - Stretching

Vionna Jones: Hi, I am Vionna Jones, owner of Fit in DC, LLC and I am showing you how to burn calories during the holidays. Now we are going to talk about stretching. Stretching is a very important part of your workout. You want to make sure that do not skip this part. If you tend to skip stretching at the end, you should stretch before you do your warm up at the beginning. So we will start with stretching the upper back. You want to stretch all of the muscles that you have used during your workout and we will do an exercise of stretch called Eagle arms, that is taken from a Yoga pose. By opening up the arms as wide as you can, we will bring the right elbow underneath the left and twist the arms in front of the body. You are going to roll the shoulders all the away up and then push the shoulder blades all the way back and down. And while the shoulder blades are down your back, you are going to push your elbows away from your body. You are going to hold all of the stretches for about 20-30 seconds and then you will release, opening up the arms again. This time left elbow comes underneath the right and we will twist the arms, fingertips towards the ceiling, rolling the shoulders up, shoulder blades all the way back and down and keep them down while you are pushing your elbows away from the body. This stretches out the muscles we have used during the upright rows, holding for 20-30 seconds, and then release. And then we will stretch out the shoulders. We have used the shoulders during the push press. You can bring one arm straight across your body using your other hand. So push the arm enclosed to your body, holding 20-30 seconds then we will release. Doing the same thing on the other side, bringing the arm straight across, shoulder blades are down, it stretches out the muscles we have used during the push press and then we will release after 20-30 seconds. After those push-ups, we will do a chest stretch, we are going to roll the shoulder blades all the way back and down, again you are clasping your hands behind your body. And then you will push the hands away from the body out behind you, turn the stretch to your chest, holding for 20-30 seconds, and then we will gently lower the hands back down to the body.

To stretch out the muscles that we have used during the body weight squats and the push press, you don't want to stretch out the quads. So you can come over by a wall if you would like to, to hold, to keep your balance. You are going to hold on to your shoe laces, tuck your tail bone under and stretch out these quadriceps' muscles, here in the front of your thighs. Then there is no need to lean forward, you are going to stand nice and tall rolling the shoulders back, hold for 20 seconds and then switching sides. Stretching the quadriceps' muscles on the other leg, holding for 20-30 seconds, and then we will release.

Now we will stretch out the shoulders one more time, using the wall, using the door. You will put your hand on the inside of the door frame and turn slightly. Moving slowly until you feel a stretch through your shoulders here, you don't want to turn too fast, and again hold this for 20-30 seconds, repeating it on the other side. It is really important that you do these stretches at some point, before or after your workout because the workout really contracts and tightens up your muscles. These stretches will help to lengthen your muscles so that you will prevent injury and you will be able to do your exercises more effectively. And that is how to properly stretch after your workout. Next, I will talk a little bit about how to fit exercise into your everyday life.