I love stretching, it improves my mood and brings me back into the sensations of my body. If there was such a thing as a stretching class close to my home, I’d be there. What a way to start the day. In my online meanderings I found these concise and up to date tips on stretching.

A research paper on stretching is also available at IDEA Fit website. Really worth becoming a member of this site, loads of useful things have come to my notice.

Here is an excerpt from this article,

What is the best application of PNF stretching?
Evidence-based research provides the following recommendations (Sharman, Cresswell & Riek 2006):

* Duration of static contraction of the target muscle is 3–15 seconds.
* Contraction intensity of the target muscle is 20%–70% (see #7). The researchers note that there is evidence that progressive increases in intensity (within the 20%–70% range) may provide greater gains in ROM.
* No studies have investigated opposing muscle contraction intensity for PNF stretches in this phase.
* One complete repetition seems to be sufficient (i.e., one contract-relax or one contract-relax agonist-contract stretch).

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