Stretching Guide

Stretching is often overlooked

Stretching is a highly effective way to improve athletic performance, but it's routinely neglected — partly because coaches often don't know how to use it systematically, and partly because athletes have to do it on their own initiative. It also doesn't make you sweat, so it doesn't feel like "real" training. So how do you actually make stretching effective?

This isn't going to walk through specific stretches for every muscle group. Instead, it's about how to use stretching effectively alongside training, recovery, and nutrition — something plenty of coaches and athletes who already know individual stretches never quite figure out.

The basic principle

The core idea behind stretching is a slow stretch of the muscle up to the point just before it starts to hurt. It must not hurt — that's the key rule. You get a better stretch if the muscle has just performed an isometric contraction (working against a fixed resistance, with no change in muscle length) right before you move into the stretch. Exhaling during the stretch deepens it further.

A relaxation stretch for a muscle group should generally be repeated around 3 times for 15 seconds each. For a pre-workout stretch, you can follow the initial relaxation stretches with shorter, 5–8 second stimulation stretches that go slightly further, into mild discomfort.

A key mistake, especially with relaxation stretching, is bouncing. The core principle is a slow stretch followed by a slow release — think of wringing out a wet sponge or a soaked cloth (that's the stretch phase): it pushes blood out of the muscle quickly. When you ease off the stretch, the "sponge" can soak up fresh blood again. That whole cycle moves far more blood through the muscle than normal circulation would. It's a real boost to blood flow and muscle function. On top of that, muscles have lower resting tone after stretching, which means better overall recovery — tense muscles have worse blood flow and tend to stay in a catabolic state. The effect of a good stretch can last up to 48 hours; ideally repeat it at least once every 24 hours.

Stretching before training

The main goal here is to increase blood flow and muscle tone ahead of your session. Do it before your dynamic warm-up, targeting the muscles you're about to train hardest: 2–3 relaxation stretches of 15 seconds each for blood flow, then 2–3 stimulation stretches of 5–8 seconds pushing toward mild discomfort.

If you're training a muscle group in isolation, stretch the muscle you're about to train with the stimulation method, and stretch its antagonist (opposing muscle) with the relaxation method — relaxing the antagonist actually improves the working muscle's performance. This matters especially for muscles involved in maintaining posture. If a particular muscle group tends to give you trouble, give it extra relaxation stretching.

A normal warm-up follows this stretching, and it can be shorter than usual since blood flow and muscle tone are already elevated.

Stretching during training

Between sets, do one 15-second relaxation stretch on the muscle you're training and one 15-second relaxation stretch on its antagonist, every rest period. For supersets and similar techniques, it doesn't matter much whether you stretch between exercises or after — whatever fits your flow. This kind of stretching helps clear lactate from the muscle and reduces the risk of cramping. If a particular muscle group tends to cramp, repeat the stretch there. Stretch again at least once after you finish training that muscle group.

Stretching after training

Once your session is done, use relaxation stretching on the main muscles you trained: 2–3 stretches of 15 seconds each.

Why stretching between sets matters so much

Stretching between sets and at the end of training has a big effect. On a muscle full of the byproducts of hard work, it's a bit like wringing out a dirty cloth in clean water. One thing to watch for: this method is effective enough that a large amount of lactate, instead of sitting in the muscle for many hours, moves quickly into the bloodstream (how much depends on the quality of the stretch). From there it travels to the liver, and because lactate (lactic acid) shifts the liver's pH, it can trigger reactions that bring on drowsiness. That can be a genuine problem if you're driving home from the gym or riding public transport and risk dozing off past your stop.

Using stretching to fuel your muscles

Stretching can also help direct nutrients toward specific muscle groups. If you know when a given nutrient — carbohydrate or amino acids, say — is at its highest level in your blood, you can use stretching to help route it toward the muscles you care about. So if you raise your blood glucose after training with a carb drink (roughly 45 minutes after drinking it), stretching at that point speeds up glycogen replenishment in the working muscle. Similarly, stretching three to six hours after training (especially around the fifth hour) supports muscle protein synthesis. If you finish training at 10 p.m., you don't need to get up in the middle of the night for this.

Muscles that get short and tight

Both athletic training and a sedentary lifestyle — sitting at a desk, holding certain postures — can cause certain muscles to shorten or fall out of balance with their opposing muscles. That imbalance often shifts vertebral alignment, compresses nerves at the spine, stalls muscle development in the affected area, and causes pain in joints, tendons, and muscles. A classic example: a tight, shortened iliopsoas (hip flexor) increases lower-back curvature, causes low-back pain, and impairs blood flow and growth in the legs. Stretching this muscle, combined with stretching the abs between ab sets, is a genuinely effective way to address these issues.

Stretching to help you fall asleep

Following on from the last point, relaxation stretching can also help you wind down before sleep. Start with the muscle groups you trained that day — 3 sets of 15 seconds per muscle is enough. Follow that with stretches for the muscles that originate at the spine and affect posture, like the hip flexor mentioned above — again 3 sets of 15 seconds, relaxation-style. Do this stretching close to bedtime, since it genuinely does help bring on sleep.

Before falling asleep, once you're already in bed, it also helps to mentally rehearse the training session you just did — picture yourself going through it again. This increases activity in the nerves leading to the trained muscles and can further support their recovery.

If all of the above sounds like a lot, give it a try anyway — pre-workout stretching fits naturally into your warm-up; between-set stretching happens anyway while you catch your breath and wait for your heart rate to drop and ATP to replenish (about two minutes); the same goes for after training. Do that part in the locker room, and save the evening post-workout stretch for in front of the TV.

You can boost the muscle-nutrition effect of stretching (for the limbs only) with an alternating hot-and-cold soak. Use two basins with about 10–15 cm of water — one as hot as you can tolerate (usually around 55°C), one cold, ideally with ice added. After training, alternate dipping your hands to the wrists or feet to the ankles between the cold and hot water for as long as you can stand each, switching back and forth several times. Only soak the limbs that did the work that session — not both arms and legs at once. Refresh the hot water regularly since it cools quickly.

Don't apply this temperature-alternating method to large areas of the body — extreme temperature swings across a big surface area become a stressor and can push you toward a catabolic state instead of aiding recovery.

This method is genuinely effective. During my time working with a national bodybuilding team, two athletes with stalled upper-arm growth gained 2 cm of arm circumference in a month using this approach — a meaningful result for lifters already at that level.