It generally feels good to stretch whether in the morning or late on when you retire to bed. The question however is, which one is better given that all is beneficial? Most people prefer morning jogs, runs, weight exercises, cardio, etc. to set their day right.
Studies have revealed that morning workouts are essential in burning excess calories from the body; a process that goes on for extended hours even long after the exercise concludes.
This tells you in certain terms that morning stretching is more advantageous than one right before bed. More specifically, stretching in the morning works best to relieve muscle tension, pain, or stiffness. Muscles and joints are at their most dormant when one sleeps.
It becomes easier for them to become shorter and stiffen. That is why you’d wake up some days with a stiff neck. Morning stretches go a long way to alleviate this setting you up for a more productive day.
On the other hand, stretching before bed helps to relax your muscles hence preventing you from waking up unnecessarily, thus boosting the quality of sleep you get. So, is it better to stretch before bed, or when you wake up? Let us explore more herein;
Why does it feel so good to stretch in the morning?
Although an instinctive response, stretching right after you wake even still under the covers feels amazingly refreshing. At that instant, nothing comes close to that feeling. The thing is, there’s an actual biological explanation of why we stretch in the morning, and why it feels so nice.
Let’s start with yawning, and then stretching your arms over your head. This movement is called pandiculating, and according to SciShow, a YouTube channel, the term specifically means stretching while yawning. This is a natural body response that helps it to wake up.
This is after several hours of sleep, muscle rest and general body inactivity. Pandiculating essentially means you are rebooting your system. A general body reboot helps the body to snap out of sleep, boredom, inactivity, muscle stiffness, etc.
Luis Villazon, a science writer presented a peculiar but interesting theory about morning stretches. “When you sleep, your muscles lose tone and fluid tends to pool along your back. Stretching helps to massage fluid gently back into the normal position,” said Mr Villazon.
Further, he added that muscles, just like other organs have a self-protecting mechanism against overstretching. This he said is through inhibition of nerve impulses as the muscle stretch nears the limit. Therefore, pandiculating is essentially away the body recalibrates and resets the range motion.
Furthermore, a physical therapist by the name of Nicholas Licameli agrees that stretching in the morning helps to significantly decrease stress the morning.
Also, the physical therapist is convinced that morning stretches can help to improve blood flow throughout the body, and most importantly, into the muscles to enhance nourishment. This consequently lowers stress levels before you pick up the day.
Essentially, the movement of muscles and other body parts which is brought by the motor coordination of nerves, tendons, joints, ligaments, and bones activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the general body system responsible for the ability of the body for digestion, resting, and recovery.
Licameli further discourages static stretching in the morning the first time you wake up. The reasoning is, that during sleep, one’s muscles grow shorter and stiffen due to inactivity.
Since static stretching involves holding and extending muscles over a specific period, it presents a high risk of overstretching the muscles which can easily result in tears or other damage.
If you want to incorporate static stretching in your morning schedule, the therapist advises light dynamic stretching prior to your regular routine.
With light dynamic stretches, Licameli means anything that gets your heart rate rushing, and muscles warm. You can do anything along this line including going for a walk, lunges, squats, etc.
Once you have stably established your morning routine by finding the correct movements and combinations, stick to it and regularly stretch for at least 5 to 10 minutes, thrice a week.
This will keep your body in great shape (physically and mentally) enabling you to focus on your tasks without much stress.
As we mentioned earlier, yawning and stretching in the morning right after sleep is a natural impulse. It doesn’t have to stop there.
Usually, people’s schedules become so tight to a point where on waking up, they’ll frantically rush for the shower, dress up quickly, and leave to attend to their businesses.
By so doing, we are ignoring our parasympathetic nervous system which as we rightly indicated, needs to be fired up to further activate the body to ready itself for whatever the day will throw at it.
Without taking at least 5 mins to stretch, essentially makes you negligent and inconsiderate of your body’s need to rest ad recover – qualities so essential for your physical and mental well-being.
What should you stretch in the morning?
If possible, you can literally stretch every fibre of a muscle inside you. But because it could take you unimaginably longer, you need some focus points to ensure you are maximizing the short time you got before you set off for work.
Here are a few things you can focus on in the morning;
- Spinal twist
- Shoulders
- Side stretch
- Upper back stretch
- Calf stretch
- Standing quad stretch
- Knees to chest
What are the benefits of morning stretching?
Leaves you rejuvenized, fresh, and ready for the day: stretching generally energizes a person. If done correctly, and in the morning, you will be angling yourself forth for an energetic, positive day.
Gets you in a great shape: you don’t have to be told that you have a striking shape to know it. If you are a morning stretching person, then you already know that you are an athlete by your own definition, and your confidence is self-generated.
Stretching is good for your heart and mind: your body requires exercising to remain in an optimal state. Stretching is a form of exercising that not only activates your muscles, it also helps in nourishing and maintaining your metabolism within optimal ranges, something so beneficial to the brain and heart.
Final Thoughts On Is It Better to Stretch Before Bed OR When You Wake Up
Before getting to bed, you can do things that refresh you so that your sleep is of high quality. Such activities can involve massages or meditation.
However, on waking up, you need to dedicate at least 5 minutes to stretching. Additionally, dynamic stretching is the best form of stretching for morning workouts.
To be honest, it is not always as clear cut as is it better to stretch before bed, or when you wake up. In fact, sometimes, it is more beneficial for you to do different stretches before sleeping than when you have first woken up.
