FOR OPTIMAL

muscle performance, reducing soreness and chance of injury and even combating the effects of joint pain and arthritis, Nichol and Dhillon offer stretching tips for before and after your workout.

Glute Bridge Lay on your back and press your feet into the floor, lifting your buttocks into the air to activate all the surrounding muscles.

Lunge Stretch Throw a couch cushion on the floor, put one knee on it and one leg in front and stretch forward into a lunge.

Postural Exercises Any kind of pulling or rowing motion with proper posture (“Make sure your head is in a neutral position and is not jutting forward, straight back, shoulders back and tighten the abdominal muscles.”).

Simple Stretches Lay on your back with one leg straight; pull the other knee into your chest and hold for 10 seconds. Switch legs and repeat. After a few stretches, pull both legs to your chest at the same time.

Lay on your back, straighten your legs and raise them to 90 degrees (so you’re in the shape of an “L”). Drop them to the left, hold and then come to the centre and drop them to the right.

“Simple stretches help with the associated musculature of the lower back,” Dhillon says. “[They] allow … increased range of motion of the lumbar spine as well as proper hip functions, thus aiding the lower body to perform in co-ordination.”

Single-Leg Balancing Stand on one leg and balance. Repeat with other leg.

Dhillon says some tightness 48 hours after a workout can be normal. If it goes into a fourth day, you know you went too hard – that or there was a lack of

proper stretching. —