A lot of people tend to overlook the importance of stretching after a workout. They finish their exercises and, exhausted, rush out of the gym in a hurry to move on to the next thing in their day. But taking even just five minutes at the end of your workout to stretch can benefit you in many ways, from helping improve your mobility to making it easier for your muscles to recover and allowing you to avoid soreness the next day.
Convinced? Good. It’s only five minutes, after all. To keep things as simple as possible for you, we’ve created this full-body stretching routine that you can use after every single one of your workouts, doing every stretch for 10-20 seconds each. Check it out below.
The Routine
Start standing with your feet wide. Reach overhead, stretching first to the left and then to the right. Stretch your arms to each side in front of you. Stretch your triceps overhead on each side.
Lean forward and do a standing straddle stretch. In your standing straddle, walk your hands over to the left. Then to the right. Walk your feet together for a standing pike stretch.
Lay down on your back. Bring your knee into your chest. Then cross it over your body, opening up your arm on the opposite side for a twisting stretch. Finally, do a figure four glute stretch. Repeat on the other side.
