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Stretching has a wealth of benefits, making it a valuable addition to your workout routine. However, once you get started, questions may arise.
You may wonder how long to hold a stretch, how often you should stretch, and when’s the best time to stretch. You may also want to know how to personalize your routine to suit your individual needs and goals.
This article takes a closer look at the ins and outs of stretching. Read on to discover how long and how often you should stretch, how to avoid overstretching, and the many benefits stretching can offer.
Dynamic or active stretching uses movement to lengthen muscles and get your blood flowing. Static stretches are held for a set time, which can range from 10 seconds to 3 minutes.
If you go into a stretch and get the feeling that you want to release immediately, it may be a sign that you need to spend some more time stretching this area. It’s fine to ease your way into it.
According to Joely Franklin, a Level 3 personal trainer and sports therapist, “If you can bear it, even though it may be a bit uncomfortable, go ahead and hold the stretch for 45 seconds to a minute.”
Give your body time to relax into the position
She explains that this gives your body a chance to relax into the position and lets your brain realize that you’re not going to get hurt. Your muscles may spasm a bit in the beginning, but this is natural, especially if you’re not used to stretching.
Franklin advises holding a position for up to 3 minutes if there’s an area of your body you’re working to open due to tightness, an injury, or to achieve an intense goal, such as the full splits.
Know your limits
However, you also want to make sure you’re not holding the stretch for too long. Franklin explains, “If it’s too painful when you’re coming out of the stretch, you’ve held it too long.”
She stresses the importance of understanding your limits for flexibility by intuitively connecting to your body so you know when you’ve done too much.
Stretch your body when your muscles are already warm, either after a warmup or at the end of your workout as part of a cool-down routine. Or, you can do a simple stretching routine on its own.
Doing stretches after you warm up and before you start a high-intensity activity can cause your heart rate to drop. Make sure your heart rate is elevated again before moving into your workout.
Usually, your muscles will be more open and flexible toward the end of the day, so if you’re used to working out in the evening and switch it up with a morning stretch, don’t expect to have the same amount of flexibility.
As long as you’re not overdoing it, the more regularly you stretch, the better it is for your body. It’s better to stretch for a short time every day or almost every day instead of stretching for a longer time a few times per week.
Do a 20- to 30-minute session at least three times per week. On days when you’re pressed for time, do this 5-minute stretching routine.
Regular stretching can increase flexibility and improve your range of motion. Improving your flexibility opens up your body, releasing stress and tension. It also helps to treat and prevent back pain.
Increasing your range of motion allows your body to work efficiently and effectively, so you can:
- go about your daily activities with less effort
- perform at a higher level during sports
- reduce your chance of injury
Boosts blood flow and circulation
Getting the blood flowing to your muscles supports your body’s overall function by reducing stress and delivering oxygen throughout your body. This is especially important if you spend a lot of time sitting or have a sedentary lifestyle.
Boosting your blood flow may even start or speed up the recovery process and prevent delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). In addition to exercise, include some of these foods in your diet to improve blood flow and circulation.
Enhances mood and well-being
Touching on the mind-body connection, Franklin emphasizes the opportunity to use a flexibility routine to tune in to yourself. She encourages her clients to “allow it to be a meditative experience, disconnect from external distractions such as your phone or the television, and tune into yourself.”
She recommends entering a rest and digest state, from which you can allow yourself to process any emotions that arise and move forward. Franklin inspires her clients to practice acceptance and forgiveness to be fully present in each moment.
Helps balance and align your body
While a perfectly symmetrical body isn’t possible, stretching can make your body more balanced, which may improve your posture and reduce your chance of injury.
Franklin explains that while you’re never going to achieve full symmetry, you don’t want one side to compensate for the less flexible side. She recommends spending some extra time on an injured or nondominant side to rehabilitate it.
As a general rule, go only to your edge and remember it can vary daily. This means that you should go to your point of sensation so that you’re feeling the stretch, but not overdoing it.
Don’t force yourself into any position. Also, bouncing while doing a stretch can cause tightness and injury. Franklin points out that “you shouldn’t feel soreness from a stretch the next day, so if you feel sore the next day you know you’ve done too much.”
Don’t bounce into a stretch — this can cause tightness and injury.
Stretching before a high-intensity event, such as a sprint, could decrease your power output and hinder your performance. However, research surrounding the effects of stretching before exercise varies, so it’s important to take an individualized approach and do what works best for your body.
Stretching is almost always a good idea, even if you only have a few minutes. You’ll feel better mentally and physically, which may inspire you to be more active. Check in with a fitness professional or friend every so often to make sure you’re stretching safely and effectively.
Change up your routine from time to time to give your body a chance to get used to different stretches. Include a few stretches that you naturally shy away from. Chances are, they target areas of your body that need a bit of extra attention.
Be careful if stretching could interfere with your injuries or health conditions, and take time to fully recover when your body needs a break. Touch base with a doctor, physical therapist, or fitness professional if you have any specific questions or concerns.
Static, dynamic, PNF and ballistic are all types of stretching exercises. Here we explain each and when to use them.
What is static stretching?
Static, or isometric stretching is a type of stretching where you gently stretch the muscle to feel a gentle pull. Hold the stretch for upwards of 10 seconds then relax.
Stretches should always be pain-free. If you feel pain then your muscle will naturally want to tighten to protect itself.
After a muscle strain your physio may recommend static stretching. In strong healthy muscles, however, PNF-type techniques may be better for developing flexibility.
Dynamic stretching
Dynamic stretching is popular these days, particularly for warming up. It involves stretching your muscles whilst moving, either by leg swings or by performing sports-specific drills.
Why does dynamic stretching work?
Your muscles have sensors in them called muscle spindles. These muscle spindles sense how fast your muscles stretch. If they sense your muscle stretches too fast they trigger to prevent overstretching. As a result may cause injury. This is how stretch related muscle strains can occur.
By incorporating dynamic stretching into your warm up, the muscles gradually adjust to the demands placed on them.
PNF Stretching
PNF stands for Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation. There are several ways of performing PNF stretches including hold-relax; contract-relax; and rhythmic initiation.
PNF become popular in the 1960s and has since grown in popularity with physiotherapists and other sports injury professionals.
PNF can be either completely passive (meaning the therapist moves the limb through its range of motion), or active-assisted, in which the athlete plays a role in the treatment. In this case, it requires an isometric contraction before the stretch.
Hold-relax PNF stretching
So for example, to use the hold-relax PNF technique on the hamstrings, the athlete would lays on their back and raises the straight leg up off the bed. To do this they must contract the hip flexors Rectus Femoris and Iliopsoas).
From here, the therapist or partner provides resistance as the athlete isometrically contracts the hamstrings (as if trying to push the foot back down to the floor) for a minimum of 6 seconds. Following this, the athlete contracts the hip flexors again to raise the leg higher and further stretch the hamstrings.
This works on the theories of reciprocal inhibition (or innervation) and post-isometric relaxation. Reciprocal inhibition is based on a reflex loop, controlled by the muscle spindles.
When the agonist muscle contracts, for example the quads, causing knee extension), the antagonist’s muscle is inhibited, causing it to relax (in this example the hamstrings), allowing the full movement of the antagonist muscle (knee extension).
Post-isometric relaxation is thought to be controlled by the Golgi tendon organs, sensors within the muscle that are sensitive to muscle tension. When a muscle is contracted isometrically for a period of time, this results in an inhibition of the muscle, resulting in relaxation.
PNF can also be used for treatments other than stretching, for example, muscle strengthening in a rehabilitation setting. PNF in this sense involves spiral-diagonal movements, as are used in most daily and sporting activities. Very few activities use only one plane of movement, there is usually a combination of two or all three planes (flexion/extension; adduction/abduction; and rotation). For this reason, PNF incorporates these spiral-diagonal movements to help train the body in the way in which it is most often used.
This is related to the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction.
Ballistic-type stretching exercises
This type of stretching is where you stretch the muscle as far as it is comfortable to do so. Then, at the end range of movement, you bounce or force the joint that little bit further.
- This is generally frowned on these days because the act of forcing a muscle beyond its comfortable range can damage it.
- However, Martial artists and Ballet dancers (extreme joint range of movement is required) often include it in their stretching routines.
- It may also be used in rehabilitation to increase joint range of movement. But be careful!
An example of ballistic stretching is reaching over to touch your toes and bouncing to increase the range. This type of stretching is rarely recommended due to the injury possibilities and no beneficial effect over other, safer, forms of stretching such as PNF and dynamic stretches.
Muscle Energy Techniques
Muscle Energy techniques (or METs) are types of stretching exercises similar to PNF, and developed around the same time, in the world of Osteopathy. Like PNF, METs use an isometric contraction of the agonist prior to stretching. The difference is in the force of the isometric contraction, which in METs is a lot lower. A MET stretch is performed in the following way, using the hamstrings as an example:
The therapist moves the hip into flexion, with the athlete on their back, until they encounter the point of resistance – where the movement stiffens, due to tightness in the hamstrings. They hold this position for 15-20 seconds. They then ease off slightly from the stretch and ask the athlete to try to push the leg back down to the couch, which causes an isometric contraction of the hamstrings. In METs, this contraction should be a maximum of 20% of the athlete’s total strength. This contraction is held for around 10 seconds, before the therapist asks them to relax and pushes the limb further, increasing the stretch, until resistance is felt once more. The process is usually repeated 3-5 times for each muscle.
Neural Stretching
Neural stretching refers to stretching the structures of the nervous system. This is necessary for injuries where there is excess neural tension, for example, muscle-related sciatic pain.
- Examples also are commonly found in the neck, shoulder, or pelvis area.
- Neural stretches are adaptations of neural tension tests, such as the slump test and the upper limb tension test.
- The limb is taken to the point of stretch and held for a maximum of 10 seconds, although initially, this may be as little as 3-4 seconds to avoid causing damage to the nerves.
- Types of stretching like this should only be performed under the supervision of a qualified therapist.