Growing up as a dancer, I at all times thought that the extra versatile I used to be, the higher I might be. In an artwork kind that values how excessive your leg can go or how far backward you possibly can bend, there was some fact to that. However in all probability not sufficient fact to justify simply how a lot I used to be stretching: earlier than dance class, throughout lulls in rehearsal, after dance class, at residence watching tv.
Sooner or later, I realized I shouldn’t be holding all these static stretches earlier than exercising or dancing. However my near-constant stretching continued—after the boutique health lessons I took almost on daily basis, after each run, generally extra at night time—whilst I principally stopped dancing and my health objectives modified: Quite than attempting to be the perfect dancer I may very well be, I used to be simply attempting to be a wholesome grownup who may do the actions I cherished (like working and mountaineering) with out getting injured.
All that stretching wasn’t hurting something, however as somebody with no mobility points and many pure flexibility, it in all probability wasn’t serving to a lot both. I don’t essentially blame myself for my stretching overkill: The post-workout stretch is so ubiquitous and so intently tied to the exercise itself that it’s straightforward to suppose no session is full with out one—and that the extra, the merrier.
There’s no arguing that stretching is an important a part of a well-rounded exercise routine. However for lively, wholesome folks exercising a number of instances per week, skipping a few of these post-workout stretches will in all probability do…completely nothing. As a matter of truth, stretching simply two or 3 times per week is sufficient to preserve muscle integrity and joint vary of movement, in keeping with the American Faculty of Sports activities Drugs (ACSM). And whether or not these periods occur after a exercise or another time in your day makes little to no distinction.
However stretching is just gaining popularity, not simply as a exercise add-on however as an exercise of its personal, with stretching studios and lessons proliferating over the previous a number of years. A pair minutes of scrolling on health influencer Instagram may even have you ever suppose that the fitting stretching routine is the important thing to curing all of your aches and pains or lastly “hacking” your restoration.
In actuality, stretching is essential, however not magical, and we solely want a little bit of it to reap its advantages. So why do we have now a lot stretching guilt?
Why we stretch to start with
The aim of stretching is to assist our our bodies transfer higher. How, precisely, stretching does that is determined by what sort of stretching you’re doing, says Heather Milton, RCEP, CSCS, an train physiologist at NYU Langone’s Sports activities Efficiency Heart.
Dynamic stretches, like shoulder circles or leg swings, contain shifting via a joint’s vary of movement, she says. We sometimes do dynamic stretches as a part of a warmup previous to understanding “so we have now full vary of movement to maneuver once we’re doing that exercise,” Milton says. “[Stretching] prompts muscle groups and helps lubricate the joints and improve our physique temperature, which permits us to do this exercise with extra ease.”
Static stretches are what most of us consider once we consider stretching: reaching down to the touch your toes to stretch your hamstrings or hanging out in a low lunge to stretch your hip flexors. “It’s pushing to a degree the place the muscle is on a stretch, which is often nearer to the top vary for that joint, and holding that place,” Milton says. “We’re telling the nerves that contract the muscle to cool down by holding that place for a extra extended time frame.”
Static stretching is extra about sustaining or rising long-term flexibility, whether or not our muscle groups are tight as a consequence of plenty of repetitive train, from sitting for lengthy intervals of time, or simply from getting older.
In easier phrases, stretching improves flexibility and mobility, which permits our our bodies to have entry to their full vary of movement. “Once we don’t have that, we run into issues,” says train physiologist Tom Holland, CSCS, CISSN.
A type of issues may very well be compensatory accidents, the place one a part of your physique has to overcompensate for one more’s tightness or lack of mobility, in keeping with Holland. “That leads you to do your actions of each day dwelling and your train in a approach that’s not pure,” he says. “Your muscle groups aren’t going to fireside the best way they need to, and that’s the place we get damage—and never essentially within the place the place you’re tight.”
Stretching vs. warming up vs. cooling down
Stretching, warming up, and cooling down all play a task in optimizing our train routines and protecting us as injury-free as doable. However the three are sometimes conflated with each other, resulting in a few of the confusion many people have about once we ought to stretch—and why.
Working example: Present as much as any native 5K race, and also you’ll in all probability see runners leaning up in opposition to a tree to stretch their calves with the intention of “warming up.” However as Milton factors out, not solely do the static stretches which can be nonetheless so generally executed pre-exercise do not heat your physique in any respect (as a result of, by definition, you’re not shifting when you’re doing them). However research have proven1 that holding static stretches can briefly cut back our muscle groups’ energy and energy by 10 % or extra, and will even predispose us to damage when executed pre-workout.
An actually-effective warmup entails dynamic stretches geared towards the particular exercise you’re going to do, and delicate cardio like leaping jacks or butt kicks. “The aim of the warmup is to get the blood flowing and lift the core temperature,” Holland says. “It’s low-level cardio exercise that will get your physique prepared.”
Warming up is “principally shifting slowly from a rested state to an train state,” Milton says. “The cooldown is the reverse of that.”
For many people, it is the cooldown that is lengthy been synonymous with stretching when, actually, it’s all about “shifting from a extremely sympathetic lively state—when your physique is below the nice stress of train and your sympathetic nervous system is turned on and your coronary heart fee is up—towards a parasympathetic state—slowing down the center fee and the respiratory fee,” Milton says. “We need to transfer away from that sympathetic state on the finish of a exercise with the intention to transfer towards restoration.”
May some static stretches be a part of that post-workout cooldown? Completely. However have they got to be? Not likely. Your cooldown may as an alternative be some respiratory workout routines, a post-workout meditation, or a post-run stroll—no matter goes to downregulate your nervous system and provide help to transition out of train mode.
“Everybody tends to do a variety of one thing a little bit bit once we’re speculated to do some bit quite a bit.” —Tom Holland, CSCS, CISSN
What stretching can—and may’t—do
That stated, it does make sense to get your stretching executed post-workout, contemplating it’s greatest to stretch when your physique is already heat. But it surely’s extra about effectivity than efficacy as a result of there’s no proof to counsel doing all your stretches instantly following a exercise is any simpler than doing all your stretches, say, later that day when you’re watching Love Island, says Gregory Rubin, DO, a sports activities drugs doctor on the Hospital for Particular Surgical procedure at Naples Complete Well being.
“You’re not stopping any accidents by doing it proper after,” Dr. Rubin says. It’s not affecting your restoration, nor will it have an effect on whether or not you expertise delayed onset muscle soreness, and even for those who get overuse accidents2 from actions like working. “There’s no clear tie between stretching and athletic efficiency,” he says.
What stretching can do is assist stop these accidents and ache factors that stem from overly tight muscle groups or lack of mobility, comparable to hamstring strains or decrease again ache. Simply don’t make the error of considering stretching would be the repair to something that feels tight or painful, says Ari Kaplan, PT, DPT, a bodily therapist at ATI Bodily Remedy. Typically we’re tight as a result of our physique is attempting to guard itself in response to a different situation, one which doubtless can’t be mounted with stretching.
“Anytime we have now one thing the place we stretch it and we’re not gaining movement or long-term reduction, that usually signifies that there’s one thing else happening,” he says, comparable to a postural drawback or an overactive muscle.
How a lot must you *actually* be stretching—and when?
After I look again on why I used to stretch a lot, I understand I had the misunderstanding that being extra versatile would someway make me a more healthy, fitter individual general.
However in actuality, except your sport or exercise calls for some particular hypermobility (like ballet, gymnastics, or pitching for baseball), we actually solely want as a lot flexibility as helps our pure vary of movement. Once you push for mobility that goes additional than that, you possibly can injure your self as a result of, at a sure level, “it’s not simply muscle flexibility which may be limiting you,” Milton says. “It’s joint mobility—and that’s okay.”
Being very versatile comes with its personal points, in any case. “With mobility comes susceptibility to damage,” Holland says. “The extra cell a joint is, the higher the chance of damage.” And in some unspecified time in the future, the flexibleness of a muscle begins to compromise its energy. “You may lengthen the muscle to the purpose that you could be truly lose some energy,” Dr. Rubin says. “You may tip the scales of your athletic efficiency.”
So how a lot—and when—must you actually be stretching? In terms of dynamic stretches, contemplate them a should as a part of your warmup each time you’re employed out or play a sport, Milton says.
For static stretches, so long as you don’t have any mobility points or accidents, incorporate them into your routine a number of instances per week—whether or not that’s after a exercise or another time. (Simply be certain your physique isn’t chilly once you do them.) Holding stretches between 15 and 30 seconds is a lot, in accordance3 to quite a few4 research5, and stretching all of your main muscle teams shouldn’t take you quite a lot of minutes.
Stretch solely to the purpose of delicate discomfort, not ache. Should you’re holding your breath, you’ve in all probability gone too far, Milton says. Bear in mind: So long as you don’t have any important joint or muscle tightness, stretching can simply be about sustaining the mobility you have already got, she says.
“Everybody tends to do a variety of one thing a little bit bit once we’re speculated to do some bit quite a bit,” Holland says. “It’s far more easy than folks make it out to be.”
