NATIONAL STRETCH DAY

NATIONAL STRETCHING DAY | December 11

On December 11, National Stretching Day is dedicated to educating people on the numerous benefits that come with practitioner assisted-stretching.

#NationalStretchingDay

Flexibility is one of the most significant components to leading a healthy lifestyle. When most think about stretching, it is in relation to one or two stand-by stretches that are held for a few seconds and released. However, this isn’t the most efficient form of stretching.

There is a way to stretch that can make you feel a difference. On National Stretching Day, we are bringing awareness to why incorporating practitioner assisted-stretching into your everyday routine will make your movements more efficient. In fact, your stretching movements will be more effortless and pain-free on a daily basis.

Importance of Stretching

Why is stretching important? Stretching improves our lifestyle and helps us live a better life. When we stretch daily, we increase our mobility and keep our muscles flexible and strong. Due to sedentary lifestyles of growing older or over stressed muscles, people develop excessive resting muscle tone causing everyday movement to be difficult, cumbersome, or painful. Our independence becomes compromised, partially due to a greater inability to move.

Daily stretching exercises or getting regularly stretched by a certified practitioner will keep joints moving efficiently as we age. This will keep our body healthy. A few additional key benefits to stretching:

• Relieves stiffness and soreness in your joints.
• Increases and maintains your active range of motion.
• Improves circulation and blood flow.
• Mitigates muscle imbalances that can lead to poor posture. Strengthening and stretching specific muscle groups can assist in promoting proper alignment.
• Re-establishes a more ideal resting muscle tone and optimal muscle extensibility making movement easier and more efficient.
• Supports injury prevention, enhances athletic skills and improves your ability to do daily activities.
• Helps with stress reduction, calming the mind and decreasing tension headaches.
• It makes you feel lighter and younger.

Stretching Benefits

Being stretched by a professional on a regular basis helps to relax your muscles while at the same time improves your active range of motion and ultimately your daily motor skills.

The main goal of practitioner assisted-stretching is to be able to move further efficiently and effortlessly. Over time, a persons tolerance to stretch systematically increases. Eventually, your muscles will freely extend further to ultimately make life better. Practitioner assisted-stretching enables you to regain the ability to do what you once enjoyed doing and continue to be active for the rest of your life.

Stretching Truths

Research shows that the limiting factor to increase lasting apparent muscle extensibility is not the length or viscoelastic properties of the muscle. You cannot truly ‘stretch’ a muscle because muscles are not very elastic do not ‘stretch’ to a longer length. Instead, muscle extensibility depends upon the muscles’ sensitivity to tolerate the stretch.

Muscle length does not profoundly change despite what the word stretch implies. In truth, muscles extend further and further by increasing their “tolerance” to a stretch. Regular stretches at the right intensity and frequency builds stretch-tolerance and apparent muscle extensibility. Studies also show stretching one or two days per week was adequate to maintain range of movement (ROM) gains. Stretching three or more days per week allows you to attain further ROM gains.

LET LOOSE

• Develop a new daily stretching routine and stick to it.
• Learn about the short and long-term benefits of stretching.
• Join a Yoga class.
• Play a nightly game of Twister with your family and have fun stretching.
• Volunteer at a retirement facility and engage residents to practice daily stretching techniques.
• Join a stretching class.
• Document your stretching journey and watch your progress.
• Learn about the Stretch Zone Method.
• Share your photos of your stretching routine on social media using #NationalStretchingDay.

FOUNDER

National Day Calendar is pleased to welcome Stretch Zone to the National Day Calendar Founder Family. Beginning in 2022, we will celebrate National Stretching Day on December 11 and each year after.

Stretch Zone was founded in 2004 by Jorden Gold after watching diabetes deteriorate his Pop-Pop (grandfather) and seeing him become immobile as a result. Gold believed he could apply a proprietary stretching method to help individuals increase their mobility, while reaping the many benefits that proper stretching offers. This became known as the Stretch Zone method and led to the creation of the world’s first and largest stretching franchise.

The Stretch Zone method uses a patented strapping system and principles of neuromuscular behavior. A 30-minute practitioner-assisted stretching session at Stretch Zone delivers a life-changing stretch experience that follows specific methods and protocols. It is designed to improve circulation and create a more ideal resting muscle tone.

Make a Pledge to Stretch on December 11

If you’ve never been properly stretched or even if you have, use National Stretching Day an opportunity to take advantage of a free 30-minute stretch from a certified practitioner at Stretch Zone. Once you’ve been stretched, give a free stretch to someone else! Visit Stretch Zone National Stretching Day to find more ways on how you can celebrate National Stretching Day with Stretch Zone.

A few other easy ways you can observe National Stretching Day are:

• Use the hashtag #NationalStretchingDay on social media to show how you stretch and/or how stretching changed your life.
• Learn about the short and long-term benefits of stretching.
• Document your stretching journey and watch your progress.
• Learn about the Stretch Zone Method.