Muscles support your whole body—I mean duh? Your muscles facilitate your movement, mobility, and flexibility.
As you age, you lose your muscle, so it is important to keep them strong, but even more important than that is maintaining their health. Which means taking care of them, just like you take of your teeth or hair!
Step-by-step exercise guide:
- Warm up! Get your heart pumping and the blood and oxygen flowing through the muscles with a cardio warm up, such as; a jog on the spot and jumping jacks.
- Stretch and lengthen your muscles. Each time you should attempt to go a little further than the time before, but be aware of your limits to avoid straining or damaging the muscle tissue. For example; a downward dog stretch targets the back, shoulders, and calves.
- Following the workout, cool down the muscles! If you take the time to relax the muscles properly, it prevents increased soreness as well as an injury and pain down the track.
- Roll it out! Using a foam roller to massage the muscles deeply, relieves stress and breaks up the lactic acid that forms during exercise. It is recommended to use a foam roller for 10-15 minutes a day for injury prevention and to increase muscle motion range.
- Have a bath! Taking a bath can further relax the muscles and return the body to a calm state. If you have Epsom salt, throw it in too!
Taking care of your muscles now can prevent pain or discomfort down the track. We do, however, experience discomfort from time to time in our lives, a very fixable problem. Often the solution is far easier than you may think.
