Stretching for Triathlon

Stretching is very important as it increases your suppleness and helps you recover more quickly.

By stretching regularly, you stretch your muscles and tendons so they become more supple.
Suppleness increases your efficiency during the effort. Like a well-oiled bicycle, supple muscles and tendons offer less resistance during the effort.
Suppleness increases the amplitude of movements, which is especially important when swimming and running.

After long or hard training sessions, many muscle cells remain contracted, which considerably slows down your recovery. Stretching forces these cells to relax and so promotes quicker recovery.
Stretching also helps to eliminate toxins from muscle cells.

It is essential to stretch your muscles after each training session. The most effective time is immediately after training while the muscles are still warm.
You should also perform stretching in the middle of a training session if you feel a significant drop in the efficiency of your muscles.
Stretching is also very effective if you feel you are beginning to suffer from cramp.
It is also advisable to perform some stretching exercises during your warm-up. The best time is at the end of the warm-up while your muscles are warm.
You can also perform a stretching session outside a training session, such as in the evening before going to bed or during a rest day.

The muscles which most require stretching are the triceps, pectoral, dorsal, lumbar, quadriceps, hamstring and calf muscles. Other muscles may also be stretched.
Stretching must not hurt.
You should gradually increase the pull on the muscles and then maintain that pull for a few seconds (20 to 60 seconds).
For maximum efficacy, each exercise should be repeated two or three times with a short pause (10 to 30 seconds) between successive repetitions.

Stretching helps you to progress more quickly and must therefore be performed assiduously.