Stretch It Out: 5 Expert Tips to Improve Your Flexibility

If you’re guilty of skipping warm-ups and cooldowns, think again!

Improving your flexibility is crucial for more than just injury prevention. If your goals are to enhance your workout performance and gain strength and size, flexibility training is crucial.

And if you’re prone to sitting hunched over a computer screen all day, the need for improved flexibility is even more important. Tight muscles and stiff joints inhibit proper technique, limit your range of motion and decrease your gains. Here are 5 expert tips to improve your flexibility and make your workouts even more effective than they already are.

#1: Do a Dynamic Warm-Up Before Working Out

If you think holding long stretches before a workout is vital, the research states otherwise. Dynamic stretching—active movements that help get your muscles warmed up and ready for exercise—is far more effective than static stretching prior to working out, especially before cardio, plyometrics and weight training.

Before your next workout, go through some dynamic bodyweight movements like squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping jacks and push-ups to get your blood flowing and heart rate up. Perform 2 to 3 rounds of each movement for 15 to 20 reps—it shouldn’t take longer than 5 to 10 minutes. By the end of your warm-up, you should be slightly sweaty and ready to face your workout head on.

#2: Finish off Your Workout With a Static Stretching Routine

Static stretches involve holding a stretch in a comfortable position for an extended period of time, typically between 20 to 30 seconds. These longer-duration stretches should be implemented for 5 to 10 minutes at the end of a workout to help increase your range of motion and lengthen muscles that were tightened during your sweat sesh.

Make sure to focus on all areas of your body, including your hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, chest, shoulders, lats and triceps. No matter how rushed you are for time, never skip a post-workout cooldown since having greater flexibility and range of motion makes everyday tasks and exercise much easier. Plus, it’ll boost your workout performance and help you recover faster.

#3: Stay Hydrated

Around 60% of your body is made up of water. Therefore, proper hydration helps your muscles and joints respond to flexibility training more effectively.

Because your joints contain synovial fluid, which is made up of water, proper hydration helps your joints feel more mobile. On the other hand, if you’re dehydrated, there’s less fluid in your joints, which leads to stiffness and sometimes injury.

Focus on consuming more water before, during and after hard training sessions to keep your muscles working optimally, especially since dehydration leads to performance declines.

#4: Don’t Stretch Beyond Your Comfort Zone

To keep your stretches safe and effective, never stretch beyond what’s comfortable for you. While a slight degree of discomfort is totally normal, you should never feel any pain while stretching. If you do feel pain, stop immediately.

Make sure to avoid jerky or bouncing movements while holding a stretch, since it could increase your risk of injury. And if you’re new to stretching, always start slowly and gradually add more repetitions and stretches to your routine as you get more comfortable.

Last but not least, focus on your breathing. Slow and controlled belly breathing—where the belly button moves in and out with each breath—helps relieve tension from your body while increasing the amount of time you can hold a stretch for.

#5: Try Yoga

According to research, yoga not only increases your flexibility, it strengthens your muscles in as little as 10 weeks. Adding just 1 to 2 yoga sessions per week to your regular workout routine helps loosen tight muscles and joints, which is especially important if you participate in high-intensity interval training (HIIT), weight lifting or repetitive movements like cycling or running.

Ready to put these tips into practice? The key to flexibility is consistency, so make a plan, stick to it and reap the benefits of being bendy!

Explore a huge selection of warm-ups and cooldowns in the Gymondo app. Within the app, you’ll also find yoga, Pilates, barre, cardio, HIIT, weight training and more. Start your free trial today and kickstart your journey.

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