Total Body Stretching Exercises

VIDEO DESCRIPTION

In this week's Made Fit TV episode, personal trainer Jenny DiDonato shows you stretching movements that target the entire body using a towel so you can get in a good stretch at the gym or at home!

VIDEO TAGS

Total Body Stretching Exercises Jenny Didonato Made Fit TV stretching movements flexibility hamstringTotal Body Stretching Exercises

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Total Body Stretching Exercises:

Hello everyone and welcome to Made Fit TV. I am your host Jennifer DiDonato and this is episode number 89. Made Fit TV is everyone source for health and fitness information and entertainment and it's where the fits bodies don’t just happen. It don’t just happen, they are made, that is our motto. Fit bodies don’t just happen, they’re made. And here is a place where you can learn to get some convenient tips and gets some real information on how to incorporate it into your life without making it such a choir. But you got to be consistent, you going to make your lifestyle.

So welcome to the show. In case you don’t know who I am, I’m a personal trainer out of Metro Detroit, Michigan. You can check it out on madefittv.com for more information on that. But this episode is a Total Body stretches. And today we’re going to use a towel. And I’m going to tell how you guys can win one of these towels at the end of our broadcast. So I get a lot of emails of people that want to know how to start in certain areas and I did get this one email is trying to find it and I couldn’t find it. It was taking me forever but I know I got it and someone me, “Can you just do an episode and how to stretch the entire body?”

So I said, “Sweet, that’s what I'm going to do.” Because lots of people ask about it and I’m sure that you are interested in it as well. So the first stretch, the first thing I want to tell you though, stretching is very important. It's very important for your strength training program. It relieves the tightness. Number one it relieves any soreness that you maybe feeling. It helps kind of get rid of the soreness, it won’t get rid of it all together but it kind of relieves it. It also improves your strength and improves your functionality and also adjusts your overall performance and brings those muscles back into alignment. And off course it's just overall good for the function and recovery of your programs. So let’s get started.

Upper body, first thing, number one, you’re going to take your towel whether it's long one or short one, you can double up on it. And what I want you to do is you’re going to stand and your going to have, you’re going to grip the towel about shoulder width apart because for the upper back. And what you're going to do is place them in front of you and you’re just going to pull and keep your chest out. And you’re going to pull your arms apart. You’re going to feel that in your upper back and you going to feel it in your rear delts which are your shoulders and feel the kind of in between of your shoulder blades. You just want to keep the chest up and keep pulling and hold it for about 20 or 30 seconds and release. And you can go ahead and try it again and just pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

This one is great. And you can also, even now you can also round the back and pull it as well. So you have it with your chest out and also with your back rounded. And you can feel the full effect. This one’s is getting more of the lats which is right under here and also in your upper neck as well. So that is a really good one.

The next one that lot of people have tightness with, you know, you see lot of people slouching. And you know, yeah, maybe your back, your upper back maybe weak but an other thing to it is that, your chest maybe over active so it’s pulling the shoulders forward so what we want to do is open that up and stretch it out. So you’re going to take of the towel—these one I recommend a longer towel for you that’s why this one is great. You’re going to bring it behind your head and what I want you to do is you’re going to have your hand facing behind you, see how I have that going right now?

And I have this palm facing forward. And you’re going to bring your arm in a 90 degree angle. And what I want you to do is you're going to pull the towel down with your left hand, with my lower hand but I want you to resist with the right. So see how it's going to pulling the right arm back but I maintain the 90 degree angle? And I’m feeling the stretching all in through here. So, you’re going to do it on one side for about 20 or 30 seconds and rest. And then go ahead and switch. And do it on the other one and this will really open up the chest and get the blood flowing and get the muscles to stretch with that one.

Alright, the next one we’re going to do, it’s going to be the quads, the legs, and the hips flexors, quads and hip flexors. This is a big problem for lot of runners and a lot of people who do—just pretty much if you are on your feet all the day. You have to stretch it out otherwise there will be a lot of tightness which can lead to certain injuries and postural distortions. So, what you’re going to do is you’re just going to take the towel along one and what I want you to do is stand on one leg or you can go against the wall to help to support you.

You’re just going to bring it right under at the top of your foot and I just want you to bring your hands right at your hips and I want you to pull but try to keep that knee right next to the other knee and just pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. You want to pull and try to keep those legs straight. The upper leg straight, you’re going to feel it stretching all through the front of the leg. It's going to be nice, you can even trying to pull back even further and feel the stretching your hips flexors but be careful with this one if you’re not super flexible but for those of you who know little more advance who want to get more of a better pull and you can keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling, kind of like yoga.

So, you're really going to feel it 20 or 30 seconds on that leg and then 20 or 30 on the other. Alright, now were going to sit. This is going to be for the legs, like the hamstrings. And also the lower back which we forget about but that can create a lot of problems for you if you’re sitting down at work. So, what I want you to do is have a sit put your feet straight in front of you, long towel that you want to use for this one. You can go and choke upon it if you need too. What I want you to do is you’re going to put it on your feet and what I want you to do is round your back and pull back.

You're going to feel it stretching in the upper part of your hips and your lower back. So, you’re going to feel it right into here and right into here as well rounding that back. Breathing naturally and keep pulling and that one you’re relieve a lot of tension of the lower back. Just make sure that you’re rounding the back and really targeting that one. And the next one that you can also, I’m going to have lie on your back and we’re going to stretch out hamstring and the calves.

Number five; I’m like laying down on the mic back here. Alright, so you going to keep this leg either straight or bent and you can choke up on it if you need too. I want you to keep your foot flexed and I want you to first of all if you’re not super flexible, just straitening your leg is good enough. And I want you to hold that of 20 or 30 seconds. And I want you to pull on above of your foot to really feel the stretch in your calves and then you going to feel it right in through here. Now if you’re a little bit more flexible, you can bring it towards you and straighten out that leg and take a deep breath and exhale. Keep pulling, keep pulling, I really feel it. So you’re going to feel it right in the hamstrings right there and trying to keep your legs straight.

So, these are a lot of good movements that you can use, incorporating it into your program. But just make sure, I always stress this. I‘d event stress it in the stretching basics episode which is inside of episode 20 something, you can check it out madefittv.com but you want to make sure that you’re not doing static stretching. This is what it's called, you’re not doing it right before you workout. You don’t want to do a cold, what I want you to do is I want you to warm up for five to ten minutes and on a cardio machine or doing some dynamic movements, move around, getting the blood flowing and then you can stretch. But make sure tough, if you’re going to stretch after you warm up then you’re not going to go and hop in to any strength training because remember, if you are stretching those muscle fibers and then you go to lift, you may not be lifting as heavy or as the functional as you want to because those muscles fibers were just stretch. And you want them to contract when you strength train. You know what I’m saying?

So you want to make sure that if you’re going to do this type of stretching either do it only after the warmup on a cardio day or do it right after your strength training day. But if it’s something as total body and you’re not going for super pump and you’re not going for that strength, go ahead and stretch before your strength training. I’m just letting those people know out there, in case you are looking to build size and build more strength. But if you're just, you know one of those people that just want strength training once in a while; you can stretch before the strength training. So, I hope you guys enjoy this episode. If you want a chance to win a towel, here’s what I want you to do. Go to madefittv.com and what I want you to do is go on the comment section. And what I want you to do is tell me what muscle group you train that feels the most sore afterwards.

Like that the muscles group that just gives you the most pain, the muscle group that is just like—the next morning. You know what I’m talking about that delayed on set muscles sores. Let me know, Chris and I are going to randomly choose a winner and were going to send you a towel for free. But you can also purchase this on madefittv.com as well. They are like seven or eight bucks, so it's a good investment. But if you want any of your emails, write on the Made Fit TV and just go to madefittv.com and go to the ask Jenny button right up there and send it to me and I’ll read your email here on the show.

And also you can join me live every Saturday at noon, Eastern Standard Time, that’s Eastern Time zone you know, because we are here in Metro Detroit. You can join us and we’re on for about an hour. We do the show live. It's a treat and then you can chat with us after. We—Chris and I, we sit down, we through the topics. We answer your questions, this way you don’t have to wait for me to you know, answer back your emails. And also I’m on my Facebook too; Jenny DiDonato and you can also follow my fan page as well and follow me on twitter. So, thanks so much for joining me and I hope you guys get the stretching, you’re going to feel very good. It's going to be great for stress relieving and then also for—since you’ve been on your program since the New Year, this is definitely going to help you stick with itself. Thank you and I will see you later. Models just continue with the workout for JC Penny Catalog, Made fit.