The Fastest Way to Get More Flexible Safely
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Life is short. It's important that we live to the fullest as many days as possible in this finite term that we've been granted. To make the most of this existence, remaining fully able-bodied (to the best of our ability) is a must.
If you've been following this blog then you've already learned how you can spend less time in the gym while building muscle faster from my post about building more muscle by doing less work. Depending on how many articles you've read from this blog, you may have also learned how to keep your mind sharper for longer by adopting practices that help you to grow new brain cells. If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you probably already know how to keep your mind calm and clear with easy-to-do meditation techniques. In addition, you may have already learned how to prevent yourself from getting sick with breathing exercises and other scientifically verified methods.
I tend to write on holistic health concepts that can help people with things such as frozen shoulder, improving posture by toning the correct muscles, and alleviating tech neck and lower back pain via targeted stretching. And now, I think it's important to explain how stretching should be done so that you can make the most progress in the least amount of time and as safely as possible. All of the articles I've written that involve stretching would be far more effective if my readers knew the best way to stretch in the first place.
To safely gain the most flexibility as quickly as possible, the best types of stretches must be done at the right frequency, duration, and intensity. All of these concepts will be described in good detail throughout this article.
Best Type of Stretch to Increase Range of Motion
Just as in the fields of diet and exercise, the category of stretching also has many contrasting opinions. You, yourself, may have even had the experience of being instructed in gym class to do ballistic stretching, which is a type of moving stretch in which a person usually bounces into a stretch. I think we've all been taught how to do static stretching at some point, where you bend into a stretch and hold that position for a certain duration. If you're an athlete, your coach may have had you doing dynamic stretching to prepare for the functions of your sport.
Have you heard of PNF stretching? Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching is a type of stretch that works with the body's physiology to release neurologic restrictions in the muscles. PNFs are done with some sort of passive stretch followed by a contraction followed by another passive stretch, and these types of stretches are typically done with a partner.
So, there are many different ways to perform stretches. And, there are many opposing opinions on the different stretching modalities. Let's see what the research has to say about the different types of methods we could use to improve our range of motion.
Dynamic Stretching VS Static Stretching
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You may have been taught to do dynamic stretching prior to an athletic event. If your experience was like mine, when I was playing school sports, then you may not have even been given an explanation as to what dynamic stretching is meant to do for you. The coach may have simply said something very general like, "You need to stretch. Stretching prevents injuries." But, how does dynamic stretching compare to static stretching when it comes to gains in range of motion (ROM)?
One small study involving a small number of previously injured participants showed that dynamic stretching did not result in an increase in ROM while static stretching did provide improvements in ROM (O'sullivan et al., 2009). Another study analyzed the benefits of stretching a muscle for 30 seconds, 5 days per week. The result of this study was again that static stretching yielded significantly better gains than dynamic stretching (Bandy et al., 1998).
As written previously, this blog post is written to help you to be aware of the most efficient ways to improve your flexibility. That being said, as demonstrated in this YouTube video, dynamic stretching is beneficial for preventing injuries. But, apparently, it's not the greatest for improving your ROM (MarksDailyApple, 2020).
Ballistic Stretching VS Static Stretching
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Here's another gym-coach classic: good ol' ballistic stretching. This is another stretch that was advocated for decades in American high schools and even higher-level athletics organizations. Ballistic stretching is done by using momentum to exceed the ROM that a person would normally be able to stretch to without the additional momentum. This can be done safely, but it's very easy to use too much force in a ballistic stretch and accidentally get injured.
Still, to this day, you may run into people in positions of authority who mandate that their athletes perform ballistic stretching to both increase ROM and prevent injury. The irony is that ballistic stretching is now largely phased out of formal stretching programs due to the increased likelihood of injury.
You will find studies that mention that ballistic stretching didn't cause more injuries than any other type of stretching in those particular small studies, but it's very easy to swing with too much momentum into a stretch and cause a muscle strain with this form of flexibility exercise. Does ballistic stretching provide superior results, though? The original logic behind why ballistic exercises were done for increasing ROM, in the first place, was that it was thought to be a technique that could circumvent our normal physical and physiologic limits by tricking our body into allowing us to move further as a result of the momentum being used.
According to one study, ballistic stretching did not seem to provide much in the way of improved flexibility (Covert et al., 2010). This study compared ballistic stretching to static stretching with static stretching being the clear winner in regard to ROM gains.
Maybe ballistic stretching has a bad rap. It can be done safely and at least one study that I've read stated that ballistic stretching did not produce significantly more injuries than other forms of stretching. You can definitely injure yourself with any form of stretching if you overdo it. But, my opinion is that by using slow, gentle techniques you can easily prevent yourself from accidentally going too far or pushing too hard.
PNF Stretching VS Static Stretching
What is proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF)? PNF is a stretching technique that makes use of your body's physiology to remove physiologic limitations that have been put on the muscles by the proprioceptors. This is usually done by a passive stretch followed by a contraction that is then released into a passive stretch again.
As a massage therapist, I have been doing PNF releases for my clients on nearly a daily basis for years. One thing that is very impressive about PNF stretching is that clients tend to get sudden and profound improvements in their ROM. Therefore, the clients also get relief from muscle tension.
Since PNF stretches are aimed at physiologically releasing muscles from restrictions, they are not primarily targeting the physical length of the muscle. But, often the passive stretch held at the end of a PNF stretch is done long enough that it would still be expected to improve the physical length of the muscles. Perhaps the fact that PNFs combine neurologic releases with static stretching means that PNF stretching should provide a superior result in regard to increases in ROM. Let's go to the research documents and see what they have to say about PNF stretching compared to static stretching.
In a small study conducted by Lopez-Bedoya et al., 3 different types of stretching were analyzed to see which modality would provide the best improvements in ROM (Lopez-Bedoya et al., 2013). The types of stretches being tested were active isolated stretching (AIS), hold-release PNF stretching, and static stretching. The results of this study revealed that static stretching provided more profound improvements to flexibility than the other modalities examined.
For clarity, hold-release PNF stretching is a type of PNF in which a person is brought into a stretch and then is instructed to contract the muscle that is about to be stretched against the resistance of the trainer for at least 6 seconds before relaxing into a stretch. Active isolated stretching is a type of stretching that can be done by bringing a person into a stretch, having them contract the reciprocal muscle for 2 seconds, and then slowly returning the person to a non-stretching position. These steps to AIS are repeated several times, usually more than 10 or even 20 times.
Another study contrasts with the results of the Lopez-Bedoya et al. study in that the results showed that there was no significant difference in the improvements in flexibility brought on by static stretching compared to hold-relax PNF stretching (Puentedura et al., 2011).
With two studies that contradict each other regarding how PNF stretching compares to passive stretching, more digging was needed to be done. Fortunately, a 2018 analysis was done by Lempke et al. (2018). This research took the findings of several studies and analyzed their results. After poring over the 5 studies involved in this analysis, Lempke and his colleagues came to the result that neither PNF stretching nor passive static stretching provided superior improvements in range of motion.
Which Type of Stretching is Best for Improving Flexibility?
Based on the studies involved in the comparisons above, it seems that static stretching is the way to go if your goal is to increase your range of motion. PNFs can be used to neurologically release the muscle, allowing for an immediate improvement when muscles are inhibited by physiology as a result of chronic muscle use. However, after the contraction and release of a PNF stretch are done, there's no reason why the last passive stretch of the PNF can't be held for a duration typical of a static stretch. Maybe this intuitive combination of PNFs with a final passive static stretch is exactly why in some studies PNFs provided the same amount of benefit as static stretches.
How Often Should You Stretch?
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For the longest time, I had difficulty improving my flexibility. Before I became a massage therapist, a health coach, or a Rossiter coach, I had a basic understanding of how to train muscles to make them stronger, but I had no idea how flexibility training worked. I figured that since muscles should be worked once or maybe twice a week to build them, then maybe stretching worked the same way to lengthen muscles. I would stretch 3 or 4 days per week and get almost nowhere with it.
So, if you're like I was and you're wondering how often you should stretch, how often is too often, and how frequent is not enough, then this section should help you to make sure your stretching regimen is as efficient as possible. Let's start by looking at what I was initially doing, stretching 3 times per week.
A study by Ayala and de Baranda (2010) measured the differences in flexibility improvements when stretches were done 3 times per week at varying durations. The active stretches were done for durations of 15, 30, and 45 seconds. After the 12-week study was completed, the researchers found that there was no significant difference in improvement in range of motion among the 3 stretching groups.
Another study had participants do 90-second hamstring stretches for 6 days a week for a duration of 6 weeks (Johnson et al., 2014). This study was actually done to examine if doing 9 repetitions of 10 seconds would result in differing increases in ROM compared to doing 3 sets of 30-second stretches. For the purposes of this section on the frequency of stretching, the takeaway is that both groups improved their range of motion by stretching their hamstrings 6 times per week.
Finally, in regard to the frequency of stretching, a really good analysis was done that combined the information from 23 different studies to answer the question, "how often should we stretch?"
In this study, they've come to the conclusion that stretching a muscle for at least 1 minute per day at least 5 days per week was optimal to safely achieve improvements in flexibility as efficiently as possible (Thomas et al., 2018).
Summary
To answer the question, "How often should you stretch?" you could say that we should stretch 5 to 6 days per week. Based on the thoroughness of the study by Thomas and colleagues, I would say that we should be stretching 5 days per week. "Less is more" always seems to be good advice, anyway, when the consequence of overdoing it could be a permanent injury.
How Long Should You Hold a Stretch?
It's hard to talk about the frequency of stretching without mentioning the duration. In fact, many people think solely about the duration of a stretching exercise when they think about what they should be doing to improve their flexibility; the frequency tends to be a matter of convenience in which the ROM training coincides with a workout schedule.
As mentioned in the previous section, Ayala's study tested durations of 15, 30, and 45 seconds with no significant difference in the results provided by any of the 3 durations (Ayala and de Baranda, 2010). In Ayala's study, the total duration of the stretching exercise was 3 minutes, but the participants performing the stretches were reaching 3 minutes of total time stretching by doing repetitions of 15, 30, or 45-second stretches. For example, the 15-seconds group did 12 repetitions of 15 second-stretches and the 45-second group did 4 repetitions of 45-second stretches.
This total duration of 3 minutes is akin to Yin Yoga, in which the participants use bolsters so that they can comfortably hold very gentle stretches for more than a minute. It's not uncommon to hear of people in Yin Yoga classes holding stretches for more than 4 minutes. One thing we know for sure is that 3 minutes of stretching can get you results if done safely and properly.
In the study by Johnson et al., this again was a test to see if the duration of each stretch mattered when the total time of stretching was 90 seconds (Johnson et al., 2014). After stretching 6 days per week for a total time of 90 seconds per day, the results of the 6-week trial suggested that there is no difference in gains, whether participants stretched for 9 reps of 10 seconds or 3 reps of 30 seconds. The total time stretching seemed to be the only factor that mattered.
This concept of time under tension makes sense, anyway. If you read my article on how to build muscle by doing as little work as possible, I mention various numbers of sets and reps to do. But, it's not really about quantity; it's about quality. Experts like Olaf Sorensen agree that to build muscle the reps only help you to get an accurate time under tension for your muscles. The important thing is the time under tension, not necessarily how many reps you do. Likewise, it is logical that the total time the muscle spends under stretch tension is what really matters in lengthening muscles.
The Takeaway
How long should we stretch? Stretching a muscle for 1 minute to 90 seconds, 5 days per week, seems to be a safe yet efficient duration and frequency, according to the studies cited in this post.
How Intensely Should We Be Stretching?
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As is written in my post about building muscles, there are a lot of fitness beliefs that are a detriment to us on our journey toward improving our wellness. One of those very common ideas is "No pain, No gain." There are a variety of fitness dogmas such as this. One commonly held belief is that the person who works hardest gets the most out of their exercise. As you may have already guessed, that's not really true in regard to building muscle. Knowing that information from my post on hypertrophy, does stretching work the same way?
Actually, one study set out to explore this particular concept (Wyon et al., 2009). In this study by Wyon et al., moderate-intensity stretching was compared to low-intensity stretching. The researchers found that the low-intensity group of adolescent dancers got significantly more gains in ROM than the moderate-intensity stretch group over the period of the 6-week study.
In regard to intensity, this post seems to have a recurring theme: low-intensity stretching for fairly brief durations seems to be the winning recipe for getting gains in flexibility as quickly as possible while at the same time being safe. The best part is that it appears that the best way to get gains in flexibility is actually one of the easiest ways one can practice stretching: Microstretching.
Microstretching
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One term used by the authors of the Wyon et al. study to describe the low-intensity exercises was "Microstretching." According to a video by Performance Institute, Microstretching is a gentle stretch held for one minute (Performance Institue, 2020). Other sources include shorter stretches that are done in more repetitions. Cody St. Germain's YouTube video, explains Microstretching as a type of stretching that can be done on the job and throughout the day to prevent injuries (St. Germain, 2022). Essentially, Microstretching is brief, gentle stretches that are generally recommended to be done throughout the day.
For example, Steve from Performance Institute mentions that Microstretching is the act of holding a one-minute stretch and that it's recommended to be done 3 times per day. In my opinion, everyone is different so this type of general information may or may not be good for an individual reading it.
I like the idea of stretching 5 days per week. So, maybe don't stretch literally every day. I, myself have done months' worth of Microstretching on a 5-day-per-week basis. I originally started by doing stretches 3 times per day, but I was not adhering to the concept of being gentle. I was not stretching at a low enough intensity. As a result, I felt that I was overdoing it.
To correct my errors in Microstretching I tried stretching twice per day, but still, I was doing it at too high of an intensity. Eventually, I realized that there is no need to force the stretch. Instead, just be patient and witness over time that the ROM will improve.
As stated in a Physics Girl YouTube video, stretching doesn't work the way I used to think it did (Physics Girl, 2018). During an interview with Michael K. Rowley, a biomechanist, Rowley explained in the Physics Girl YouTube video that when we stretch, we're not just forcing the muscles to elongate. Actually, we are stimulating our muscles and joints to recompose.
Rowley mentioned that stretching can stimulate stem cells in our joints to produce more collagen. The biomechanist also stated that stretching can stimulate our joints' tissues to change their composition to consist of more water. Another very interesting bit of information from the interview with Rowley is that regular stretching can actually cause the muscles to add sarcomeres to their length. In other words, our muscles can literally grow longer as a result of a consistent stretching routine.
So, think of stretching more like you're watering a plant that needs to be watered a couple times per day. You're not forcing the existing tissue to a longer length; you're stimulating the muscle to grow longer and the joints to become more pliable.
Summary
Essentially, what I've gathered from reading all this research and watching all these videos is that there does seem to be a basic recipe for improving flexibility:
The best way to safely get more flexible is to gently stretch each area for a duration of about 1 to 2 minutes, 2 or 3 times per day, at a rate of 5 days per week. Many sources state that the stretches should be at about 30 - 40% intensity. One major factor is the concept of self-awareness: listen to your body and take time off from stretching if you feel like your muscles are starting to get irritated. Yiannis Christoulas mentions in one of his videos that it's good practice to take a week off from stretching after adhering to a regular stretching routine for a few weeks (Christoulas, 2020).
As always, I hope you've found this article to be very helpful. Remember that nothing I post in my blog is meant to be considered medical advice. My blog is for information and entertainment purposes only.
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Citations:
Research Papers:
O'Sullivan, K., Murray, E., & Sainsbury, D. (2009). The effect of warm-up, static stretching and dynamic stretching on hamstring flexibility in previously injured subjects. BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 10, 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-10-37
Bandy, W. D., Irion, J. M., & Briggler, M. (1998). The effect of static stretch and dynamic range of motion training on the flexibility of the hamstring muscles. The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy, 27(4), 295–300. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.1998.27.4.295
Covert, C. A., Alexander, M. P., Petronis, J. J., & Davis, D. S. (2010). Comparison of ballistic and static stretching on hamstring muscle length using an equal stretching dose. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(11), 3008–3014. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181bf3bb0
López-Bedoya, J., Vernetta-Santana, M., Robles-Fuentes, A., & Ariza-Vargas, L. (2013). Effect of three types of flexibility training on active and passive hip range of motion. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 53(3), 304–311.
Puentedura, E. J., Huijbregts, P. A., Celeste, S., Edwards, D., In, A., Landers, M. R., & Fernandez-de-Las-Penas, C. (2011). Immediate effects of quantified hamstring stretching: hold-relax proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation versus static stretching. Physical therapy in sport : official journal of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine, 12(3), 122–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2011.02.006
Lempke, L., Wilkinson, R., Murray, C., & Stanek, J. (2018). The Effectiveness of PNF Versus Static Stretching on Increasing Hip-Flexion Range of Motion. Journal of sport rehabilitation, 27(3), 289–294. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2016-0098
Ayala, F., & de Baranda Andújar, P. S. (2010). Effect of 3 different active stretch durations on hip flexion range of motion. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(2), 430–436. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c0674f
Johnson, A. W., Mitchell, U. H., Meek, K., & Feland, J. B. (2014). Hamstring flexibility increases the same with 3 or 9 repetitions of stretching held for a total time of 90 s. Physical therapy in sport : official journal of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine, 15(2), 101–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2013.03.006
Thomas, E., Bianco, A., Paoli, A., & Palma, A. (2018). The Relation Between Stretching Typology and Stretching Duration: The Effects on Range of Motion. International journal of sports medicine, 39(4), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0044-101146
Wyon, M., Felton, L., & Galloway, S. (2009). A comparison of two stretching modalities on lower-limb range of motion measurements in recreational dancers. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 23(7), 2144–2148. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181b3e198
YouTube Videos:
MarksDailyApple. “Pre-Workout Dynamic Stretching Routine.” YouTube, 5 May 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ximZfmqh2hI.
Cody St. Germain. "Micro Stretches." YouTube, 22 March 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-yBKfpBB18.
Performance Institute. "Let's Get Flexible: microStretching." YouTube, 11 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937b6_0yq9Y.
Physics Girl. "What Stretching Actually Does to Your Body ft. Sofie Dossi." YouTube, 31 March 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JgBp7dX4AU&t=334s.
Olaf Sorensen. "Double Your Strength in 6 Months at Any Age." YouTube, 17 December 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlY0HJdw0A.
Yiannis Christoulas. "How to increase Flexibility Fast! Get Flexible by Science - (32 Studies)." YouTube, 26 January 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf8dmyg2jck&t=19s.
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