Warming Up With Upper Body Stretches

Warm up exercises are mandatory before every workout session. Only a warm up can prevent the muscles from tightening up and allow the muscles to move effortlessly. It also increases the blood flow to the muscles thereby increasing oxygen supply. It is not advisable to start working out without proper warm up. Before and after each workout, you must do the required upper body stretches.

One very effective stretching exercise is the forearm stretch. While doing the forearm stretch, the left arm is extended and with the palms of the left hand facing upwards, the right hand is moved to touch the fingers of the left hand. The left hand is kept in the same position and the fingers are gently pulled down.

You cannot avoid exercising your forearm rotators while doing an upper body stretch.  While stretching your forearm rotators, the left hand is rotated outwards slowly. Then, the right hand is used to push the fingers in the left hand in the clockwise direction. The same is repeated by first rotating the right arm and using the left hand to push the fingers of the right hand.

While doing arm swings, the arms are placed on your sides slightly outwards. The left arm is then moved up to the front and is rotated for about five times in the clockwise direction.  Then, the left arm is rotated in the anti-clockwise direction. The same is repeated with the right arm. With time, you may also try moving both the arms at the same time in opposite directions.

Stretching your neck has to be done by standing erect. You will need to bend your head down towards the left. With the left hand, the head is brought closer to the shoulder. The same is repeated on the right side.

While performing upper body stretches, you must remember to stretch the bigger muscles for longer as compared to stretching smaller muscle groups.  Each stretch should be maintained for approximately ten seconds after which you may do a stretch of each exercise or several stretches of the same exercise. You must always remember to hold the stretches for ten seconds to a minute.