We all know that properly stretching before and even after can make our activity a pleasure or a mistake! This article accounts 3 simple steps to insure you are stretching properly as well as learning about "when " you should strech.

1. 1-2-3’s of Stretching
#1 Dynamic #2 Train #3 Static
Menno Henselmans
If you’re a committed weight trainer, chances are you’re either
stretching a lot already or think you should be stretching more.
Historically, stretching has been considered one of those “does no
wrong” activities , one that’s been largely overlooked by virtually
everyone outside of a yoga studio.
But over the last two decades or so,
people have started to figure out that
stretching isn’t quite the holy grail of
healthy training.
We’ve learned that stretching should be
implemented strategically and not just at
any time, that different stretching
modalities like static, dynamic, and PNF
stretching have different effects, and that
using the wrong type of stretch can do
more harm than good.
In summary, we’ve come to realize that
stretching is limited in its use, and is not
the panacea that every perky girl in form
fitting yoga pants would have us believe.
And with that, I’m here to deliver the
coup de grâce.
Impressively Formal
Disclaimer:
All information provided in this article is
directed at neurologically intact and
asymptomatic individuals. Clinical
populations should consult with their
therapist before implementing the
approaches advocated in this article.
For those not quite up to date with the
advances in our knowledge of
stretching, here’s the short version.
Stretching, regardless of form, does not
reduce muscle soreness.
Static stretching, whether before or after
exercise, does not prevent and, in
excess, may even cause performance
injuries.
(Excessive) static stretching of a muscle
before exercise decreases its
subsequent performance.
Static stretching does not increase
strength or muscle gains from
resistance training.
In line with these findings, the idea that
‘stretching is good and more of it is
better’ has been replaced with the
advice that we should do dynamic
stretching before training and static
stretching after. The dynamic stretching
is intended to increase mobility and the
static stretching to increase flexibility.
Moreover, it’s generally accepted that
we don’t have to stretch every single
muscle – only those that are excessively
shortened as a result of training or daily
activities.

2. This is fundamentally wrong.
To understand why, first look at what happens
when you stretch a muscle. Broadly speaking,
there are three mechanisms by which range of
motion, passive or active, can be increased:
Viscoelasticity increases. Simply put, the more
elastic a muscle, the more it can be stretched
out. However, viscoelasticity isn’t the same as
elasticity, and for this reason muscles are not at
all like rubber bands, as often stated. “Like solid
materials, they demonstrate elasticity by
resuming their original length once tensile force
is removed. Yet, like liquids, they also behave
viscously because their response to tensile
force is rate and time dependent” (Weppler &
Magnusson, 2010). Neural stretch tolerance
increases. The more permissive the nervous
system, the greater the ROM it allows the
muscle-tendon structures to reach. There are
several neural mechanisms, like agonist reflex
activation, that contribute to the increased
extensibility, but let’s use neural stretch
tolerance as a catch-all term for all neural
processes here. Muscle length increases. The
longer a muscle, the longer its ROM. As such,
increases in ROM can be due to any of these 3
factors. The assumption of most stretching
programs is that muscle length increases.
However, this is based on outdated and
methodologically flawed research with improper
use of terminology.
Basically, researchers were using different
terms to denote what they were researching
and different measurement techniques to do it.
Stretch tolerance increases. As this is neural
learning, like memorizing words, this is a more
permanent adaptation. However, the increased
stretch tolerance is lost over time and can be
reinforced by repetition, much like words are
gradually lost from memory and reinforced by
repetition. Muscle (and tendon) length stay
exactly the same. When you stretch a muscle,
no permanent structural adaptations take place.
All you do with most stretching programs is
teach the nervous system that it’s okay to relax
the muscle a bit more when stretched. Most of
the neural adaptation actually is an increase in
pain tolerance.
Any increases in range of motion still present
the day after the stretching are due to purely
neural adaptations. Let me emphasize for
effect: You can’t increase a muscle’s length by
stretching it. This, of course, has far reaching
implications for the use of stretching in flexibility
training, warming up, and postural correction.
That’s why we now have all these confusing
terms like stiffness, flexibility and mobility. The
following is what really happens to the above
properties when you stretch a muscle:
Viscoelasticity may increase after hard
stretching, as in over two minutes, but this is
only temporary. Depending on the amount of
stretching, viscoelasticity returns to baseline
within about 10 minutes after two minutes of
stretching; or 20 minutes after 4-8 minutes of
stretching; or an hour after some seriously
hardcore yoga.
Flexibility
If you’re stretching to get more flexible or mobile
– I won’t distinguish between the terms – its
success is determined on your exact goal.
Doing just any hamstring stretch won’t increase
hamstring length, so it’ll have limited carry-over
to other hamstring stretches. You need to define
exactly why you want to become more flexible,
taking into account that your body’s adaptations
to the stretching will follow the specificity
principle.

3. For bodybuilders, flexibility training is only
useful to improve range of motion in exercises
that you want to do, but currently can’t do with
full ROM. As per the specificity principle, you
should make the stretches mimic the desired
movement as closely as possible. In fact, the
most specific and therefore best stretch is
usually the movement itself. For example, if you
want to be able to move in your grip on back
squats or use a clean grip for front squats, you
should just get under the bar and force your
hands into position. Try to approximate the
desired position and hold. Low-intensity static
stretching like this – just uncomfortable, not
painful – is as effective or even more effective
than harder stretching. The optimal duration
seems to be about 30 seconds, after which very
little further adaptations take place. If you want
to increase your ROM in a movement, like
squats, the most effective way is simply to do
the exercise.
This is why great coaches can get most people
to squat to parallel with just some cues and
practice, yet you’ll see others ‘working up’ to the
full squat with a gazillion exercises and months
of stretching.
Ironically, it’s often the most ardent haters of
isolation exercises that prescribe isolation
stretches for this purpose. In fact, contrary to
stretching, resistance training can actually
increase muscle length. The key is to
strengthen the muscle eccentrically in its
lengthened position. If someone has short
hamstrings, which is actually very rare, doing
good mornings or Romanian deadlifts is
infinitely more effective than any possible
amount of stretching. As for progression, you
should be able to perform most strength
movements within a couple sessions. If after
two months of frequent stretching you still can’t
perform a movement, you likely have poor
technique, a muscle imbalance, or soft-tissue
restrictions. If you’ve ruled out all of the above
and are still too inflexible, you’ve reached your
genetic flexibility limit.
It’s far easier and much more common than
reaching your muscular potential. Some
people will just never be able to squat to
parallel and I’d go so far as to say most
people will never be able to squat ass to
grass with a neutral pelvis.
Warming Up
Based on the findings listed in the
introduction, static stretching before your
training sessions is a very bad idea.
Dynamic stretching is also unnecessary,
though some of the most effective warm-up
drills are effectively dynamic stretches,
since practically any active movement that
takes a muscle through its entire ROM can
be considered a dynamic stretch. As per
the specificity principle, you should
remember what it is you’re preparing your
body for during the warm-up. The general
warm-up, which is literally mostly just about
warming yourself up, can be just about
anything.
As for the specific warm-up, do you have
any muscles that need activation work to
function properly? Will you be able to use
full ROM without stretching beforehand?
Sometimes it’s enough to just do the warm-up
sets of the movement you’re preparing
for. Whatever you do, you should normally
be done with it in less than five minutes.
Warm-ups don’t have to be complicated. It
seems many coaches just like to make
them complicated just to sound
knowledgeable. The empirical evidence that
extensive warm-ups enhance performance
or decrease injuries is actually weak.
Furthermore, evolutionarily speaking, it just
wouldn’t make sense if humans needed
long warm-ups.

4. Posture
Forget everything you think you know about
tight and loose and weak muscles. Posture is
mostly a result of neural programming – the
relative activation of all muscles in your body
determines your posture. Stretching and
strength training have repeatedly shown to have
no or weak effects on posture. This makes
sense, because stretching doesn’t actually
improve muscle length and can thus only affect
posture through its neural effects. Strength
training and correction of muscular imbalances
can also help, but in reality very little maximal
strength is required to maintain optimal posture.
Tangentially, there’s also no scientific
consensus on what constitutes optimal posture
or muscle length, even though military posture
is often advocated as the perfect prototype
Individual variation in anthropometry (your
body’s proportions and structure) make optimal
posture unique for each individual and forcing
people into some preconceived general position
can do more harm than good. If not stretching
and strength training, what determines a
person’s posture then? By and large, lifestyle.
Sports, strength training, and stretching all
affect posture, but duration is far more
important than magnitude regarding posture,
and all such activities are thus dwarfed by your
lifestyle. It’s not uncommon to see professional
athletes exhibit amazing biomechanics during
their performance, yet atrocious posture in daily
life. This is because of the body’s amazing
ability to adapt in a task-specific manner. So, if
you want to improve your posture, forget about
stretching and strength training. You’re already
achieving all you can in that respect if you follow
a decent program. The real key is mind over
matter. Just as when trying to lose a tic, you
must become aware of it and then correct it.
Repeatedly. For a long time
If you want to correct your posture, you’ll need
to just adopt the desired posture until it
becomes automatic.
Final Notes
Stretching is one of the great myths of the
fitness industry. The facts are in, the jury has
deliberated, and the verdict is clear: the
usefulness of stretching is severely limited.
Stretching, if it’s necessary at all, should be a
task specific means to an end. Stretching is not
an end in and of itself, so just stretching without
a plan isn’t going to do jack. Perhaps it’s best to
abandon the term completely, since nothing is
permanently stretched out during stretching. For
future use, I propose we call it stretch tolerance
development, or STD for short. (Or was that
acronym already taken?)
Anyway, let no testosterone-fueled man
henceforth subject himself to more than five
minutes of this tedious activity per day.
Take Home Messages
You can’t increase a muscle’s length by
stretching it. You can only increase your neural
stretch tolerance.
To increase flexibility, adhere to the specificity
principle. Increasing passive ROM is best
achieved by 30 seconds of static stretching in a
position as close to the desired position as
possible. Increasing active ROM is best
achieved by performing the desired movement
against a resistance over your maximal ROM.
Keep warm-ups short and to the point. Prepare
your body for the specific task at hand.
If you want to change your posture, you need to
become aware of it and correct it until holding
your new posture becomes automatic.
In time, your posture will improve. Soft-tissue
work can also help, especially if something is
really out of whack, but in the end it’s mostly
about neural programming

5. References as provided
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Pt 1):291-8. Erratum in: J Physiol (Lond) 1996 Dec 15;497(Pt 3):857.
A stretching program increases the dynamic passive length and passive
resistive properties of the calf muscle-tendon unit of unconditioned younger
women. Gajdosik RL, Allred JD, Gabbert HL, Sonsteng BA. Eur J Appl
Physiol. 2007 Mar;99(4):449-54.
Do practical durations of stretching alter muscle strength? A dose-response
study. Ryan ED, Beck TW, Herda TJ, Hull HR, Hartman MJ, Stout JR, Cramer
JT. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Aug;40(8):1529-37.
Effect of eccentric training on the plantar flexor muscle-tendon tissue
properties. Mahieu NN, McNair P, Cools A, D’Haen C, Vandermeulen K,
Witvrouw E. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Jan;40(1):117-23.
Effects of a 4-week static stretch training program on passive stiffness of
human gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit in vivo. Nakamura M, Ikezoe T,
Takeno Y, Ichihashi N. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011 Nov 29.
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