Stretching Chair
Stretching routine makes our muscles flexible and prepares for the forthcoming heavy activities. One has to stretch his muscles before undertaking any hardcore exercise, sports or any other activity, which puts extra strain to our muscles.
Stretching prevents injuries by making muscles flexible. A tight muscle has a greater chance of being strained than a relaxed one. Stretching before and after such activities ensure smoothness to our muscles. Regular stretching could prevent most injuries that occur while performing various daily routines such as working at computer, or sitting at desks on hours.
Stretching can be done either in a standing position or sitting position depending upon our own convenience. People who can not stand for a long time due to over weight, handicaps, ageing or any other medical conditions can do stretching using stretching chairs. Stretching chairs are useful in practicing Yoga, Pilate, etc. which involves stretching as part of their methods. Stretching chairs can also be very useful for doing some hardcore stretching exercise, which cannot be done properly on standing position.
Streching chairs should be sturdy and should be strong enough to bear our body weight. Wooden chairs would be more suitable as stretching chairs than plastic or any other synthetic chairs. These stretching chairs need to be armless as they obstruct free movements. Folding a stretching chair would not be helpful as that will hamper the movements. Base of the stretching chairs should not be too wide as some stretching require facing the backrest while sliding the legs on each side. If the base is too wide that may strain the muscles.
According to health experts stretching chairs give various benefits like increasing joint range of motion, increasing muscle activity, reflexive recruitment of major muscle groups, stimulation of respiration, stimulation of vascular and lymphatic activity, improving venous return from the distal aspects of the extremities. They also say that the usage of stretching chairs in stretching helps to increase the metabolic rate, increase in movement amplitude and improved performance in activities of daily living (ADLs).
One can find stretching chairs in furniture marts, health stores, sports stores and even online. These chairs are also custom made as per specific requirements. Stretching chairs would be slightly costlier than the ordinary chairs as they are made of special materials to long last. Stretching chairs can be used as a comfort chair for relaxing. However, these are the special chairs one needs to use them for doing stretching and other exercises only as far as possible.