Effective Stretching Routine Helps Avoid Injury for Adults Over 40 Who Enjoy Competitive Sports

If you have reached your mid-40's and you enjoy playing in tennis, basketball or racketball leagues, there is a good chance that you have experienced lower back pain. Although you may not feel much different than you did in your 20's, your body has, in fact, changed and your exercise routine needs to change as well.

Assuming you have no significant medical issue such as a herniated disc or ligament tear, and you follow your doctor's advice about exercise, there is no reason why you cannot remain competitive in your leagues for many years to come. An effective warm up routine help prevent strains and sprains and may help prevent more serious injuries

as well. There are any number of effective warm up routines - you can use the following routine as a starting point for your own pre-exercise stretching.

Your warm up routine should become a habit. Middle aged bodies are extremely susceptible to muscle andligament strains and tears if you begin vigorous exercise without proper hydration and warm up. Hydration should be your starting point for effective warm-ups. Many of the foods and liquids we consume as part of our diet can dehydrate our bodies, and many adults in America exist in an almost constant state of dehydration. At least 30 to 60 minutes before your workout, begin drinking copious amounts of water. Appropriate hydration alone will guard against many muscle strains.

Next, start your exercise with a total body stretch. In my routine, I take a 10 lb. medicine ball, extend my arms and swing the ball side to side in a 180 degree arc as I walk the length of a basketball court and back. This stretching exercise loosens my lower back, the muscles of my arms and my legs.

The next part of my warm-up routine involves the use of exercise bands. Exercise bands are large rubber bands that are usually sold in a package of 3, with different tensions. In my case, the blue band is the thickest, followed by the red band, then the yellow. I put one of the bands around my ankles then I use a "crab walk" going forward for the length of a basketball court. I will then crab walk backwards the same distance. Next I turn and slide side to side down the court and back. These rubber band exercises loosen the hips and lower body.

With the rubber bands removed, I then "high step" the length of the basketball court and back. A high step looks like an exaggerated march where you raise your knee as high as it can go while walking. This exercise loosens your lower back, thighs and knees.

The final part of my warmup requires the use of an exercise mat. I lie on my side with my body in a straight line and one leg resting on the other. I bend my top leg and slowly swing my knee forward and backward as far as I can go. This stretch warms up my hips and lower backs and it also requires the use of the arms for balance. Twenty to thirty of these hip rolls should be sufficient.

This entire warm-up routine may take 15 to 20 minutes and will prepare your body for more strenous exercises. Like any exercise routine, stop if you become dizzy or experience any significant pain and seek prompt medical attention. I use this routine before my morning workout and before playing in my 40 and over basketball league.

Weekend warrior athletes and sedentary professionals who exercise regularly need to allow time for a regular warm-up routine before exerting themselves. If your warm-up routine covers all of your major muscle groups, you can avoid painful injuries.

Jonathan Ginsberg is a practicing Social Security disability lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to his law practice, Jonathan is the editor and publisher of several national Social Security disability related web sites, including the Social Security disability information, the Social Security disability blog at http://www.ssdAnswers.com and Social Security disability radio.

The Importance Of Stretching In Muscle Sculpting Exercise

By now you should already know that stretching is a prerequisite to every workouts that you are undertaking. It is vital that you do this before and after any one. In as much as it has been preached, many do not see the positive influence it can have on the muscles and joints. The main purpose of stretching is to allow for flexibility, coordination and quickness in response of the muscle system.

Other positive influence of stretches is its ability to reduce stress, injury and soreness of the muscles and joints. All the while strengthening the muscles. There is another form of stretching exercise called static stretches. This is the type of stretch exercise that actors and actresses engage in sculpturing their body. A vital point in carrying out this exercise is that you must avoid straining your muscles while stretching. This form of stretching also reduce soreness.

In the course of the exercise, you want to release tension build up along your joints and cartilages. This will increase the muscle movement length. It is always advised that stretches be performed before and after workouts. However, you can also stretch between workouts to help you in reaching peak performance in your muscle building exercises.

Do you know also that stretching makes the muscles to be longer and bigger as well as elongating its maximum capacity?

Now let's take up a typical stretching activity:

Stand straight with the legs slightly apart. Hold out your two arms over your head, rotate. Perform stretching as far as you can, you will notice some tension around your shoulders, neck, back and side. This is because the muscles in these areas are preparing themselves for further workouts, thus tension is leaving those areas. This exercise is ideal for someone with spinal pain or injury as it will help in healing it on time.

The above exercise can also be done in the morning while lying down flat on the floor. However, while doing it, you should know that your main aim is to release tension all over the body get you ready for workouts. If you are going through pain while doing it, it is advised you stop at once.

There are other stretch exercises you can do, but you will need to find out the procedures and adapt it to your program. Go to your local library and or the internet to source for more information on this topic.

Joe Okoro writes about Muscle Sculpting, fitness and Body building in his free reports. You can sign up for his courses and get additional information by visiting: musclesculptingonline.com

Sketching a Car without getting a headache

Yes many of us have made attempts on sketching that dream car of ours, and more often than not it has made us frustrated that it looks not even close to what we had in our mind. I finally learned to get the right proportions and make the sketches not look like it was a pile of garbage and instead make them look like a Cadillac, Shelby, Corvette, Ferrari or whatever I try to sketch.

What you need to do is to look at the outward lines of the car, try to get a shape by simply trying to sketch a few lines. Then compare that to your reference car and simply fine tune the lines little by little without erasing the old lines.

My best advise is to leave the wheels while you are sketching the lines of the cars. Why you may ask, well simply because the wheels are usually the hardest part of car sketches. Then when you are starting to get satisfied with the general shape of the car-sketch, try adding the wheels. But don't be surprised if getting the wheels correct takes longer time than the the whole car!

How long does it take to do a good car sketch then? Well it is very different, depending on how the perspective of the car is. Usually getting the right proportions should take between 1-3hours. Then fine tuning it is what take lot of time, I can spend easily 10 hours on a car sketch before starting to shade it! So it all depends on how much patience and time you want to spend on this sketch of you dreamcar!

The kind of pencils I use is different, but try some and you will probably find the one you feels most comfortable with and then go with that. And remember to not be afraid of using the eraser!

Lukas Niklasson is the associated editor to the website http://www.autodrawings.net . It is a website that focus on car drawings of all sorts. It get updated regurarly with new drawings and interesting information regarding car artwork.

Anti Aging Benefits Of Stretching Exercises| Why Stretch Muscles?

In many exercise programs, be it weight lifting for building and toning muscles or cardio vascular exercises for increasing stamina and to lose weight, most people do not perform enough stretching exercises even though stretching exercises can be performed by anyone at any age unless that person has some physical restriction to stretch. What is worse, many people do not even stretch before and after exercising. Unknown to most people, stretching also has anti aging benefits.

?Benefits of stretching exercises for muscle growth

Stretching is an important aspect of exercising and should be a part of any exercise routine and program. There are many wonderful benefits when you perform regular stretching exercises. Stretching exercises not only help you to warm up and cool down before and after your workouts, it can and will actually help your muscles to grow bigger and stronger too. Don?t believe me? Then read on.

Stretching exercises help muscle growth because stretching lengthens your muscles and thus giving your muscle fibers a greater range of motion when lifting weights. So in effect, it recruits more muscle fibers and thus causing your muscles to grow stronger and bigger from your weight training.

By stretching your muscles after an intensive workout will reduce muscle soreness commonly known as DOMS (delayed onset muscle sore) which usually occurs a day after your workout.

Performing stretching exercises before your workout or before a physically demanding sporting activity will also decrease your chances of sustaining injuries and muscle cramps which will certainly destroy the joy of your activity.

When you stretch regularly, stretching exercises will help you gain agility which will make your daily chores much more pleasant and if you play sports, you will notice your agility is much better than others who do not stretch. This will put you in a more beneficial position against your opponents.

?Anti Aging Benefits Of Stretching Exercises

If you are a baby boomer and age is catching up, this agility will make your life so much more pleasurable because you will be able to avoid stiff muscles and stiff joints unlike your peers who do not stretch. You will be more mobile, agile and suffering from less pain associated with aging and stiff body parts. These anti aging benefits from stretching regularly are priceless. Benefits that money can never be able to buy.

What is more, you can stretch anytime any where as and when you like. Stretching exercises need not be limited as a pre and post workout activity. So start a stretching exercise routine soon and make it part of your everyday lifestyle. You will surely enjoy the pleasures and anti aging benefits that a regular stretching routine can bring you.
Chris Chew is a fitness personal trainer of actors, pageant winners, fashion models and other celebrities. His websites Enjoy Fitness and Great Health Forever and Fitness Trainers In Singapore