Bodybuilders Stretching Routine

Bodybuilders Stretching Routine:

Dynamic Stretching is a bit too advanced for a beginner, as it requires a lot of patience and it delivers an immense amount of pain. 

This will likely turn you away from stretching, so just stick with the basics for now. As you get more advanced, you can get into Dynamic Stretching. 

This will stimulate Hyperplasia (Splitting of the Muscle Fibers), which will result in fuller looking muscles.

 Abdominal Stretch:

Hyper extensions are a great way to stretch your abs, you can even add weights after you are comfortable with your body weight.

Pectoral Stretch:

I like doing push ups for stretching my Pecs. It also gets them warmed up nicely.

Calves:

Just doing some body weight calf raises will stretch out your calves. Stand up straight and lift your body off the ground by bringing your heels off the ground.

Flex:

Posing! Posing after a workout may seem vain, but many bodybuilders do it. It stretches the muscle a bit, it inflates your ego, and it's always nice to show off those muscles you worked so hard for. I always like to hit random people with my double bi. :-)

You can stretch accordingly to make sure all your muscles are all stretched out.

Biceps & Triceps:

Place palm flat against the wall behind you.

Start out by holding your elbow of your right/left arm behind your head and by gently pulling on it until you have surpassed your point of comfort.

My Stretching Routine:

My stretching routine is usually what my body tells me. I do all the stretches above daily, and incorporate some new stretches every so often to keep things new and fresh. 

Always listen to your body, and make sure it tells you what it needs. As time goes on, you can delve deeper into stretching, as far as technique and routines.

Cooling Down:

Cooling down is almost as important as warming up, but in some cases more important. Cooling Down usually refers to cardio but it can also apply itself to other strenuous activities. Let me start off by telling you a story.

Slowly Fades Into Memory Mode:

I remember back in my junior year of high school. I just signed up for weight training class and the first day our teacher Coach White told us what we needed to do to get an A in the class. He wanted us to bench our own weight three times, be able to do 25 pushups with a 3 second interval between each one, and be able to run 5 miles in under one hour.

The first two tasks were easy because I could easily work myself up to it, but run five miles! I was an ectomorph weighing in at about 137 lbs and I got pretty winded after a single mile. My best time was 7:37 so I was terrified of the five miles.

The time came at the end of the semester when I had to run it, and I started the first mile by jogging lightly until I was covered in a light sweat, the second to third mile I was jogging on, still going at a decent speed.

The fourth mile hit me like a brick wall, but I persevered and I walked a bit until I was at 4 and a half miles. I sprinted the last half and I was done. I collapsed and went straight into the weight room! I lifted for about half an hour and I went home and took a cool shower and fell asleep.

The next morning... you knew what happened. My whole body shutdown, every inch of my body was aching. I felt like I was Rocky Balboa and I just fought Clubber Lang, Apollo Creed and the big Russian the night before. It took me about a week or two to fully recover, that is how I know the importance of cooling down.

Now that you have been formally known about my painful mistake first-hand, I can tell you why I felt like I did.