Cease Feeling Responsible About Not Stretching After a Exercise

Growing up as a dancer, I always thought that the more flexible I was, the better I would be. In an art form that values how high your leg can go or how far backward you can bend, there was some truth to that. But probably not enough truth to justify just how much I was stretching: before dance class, during lulls in rehearsal, after dance class, at home watching television.

At some point, I learned I shouldn’t be holding all those static stretches before exercising or dancing. But my near-constant stretching continued—after the boutique fitness classes I took nearly every day, after every run, sometimes more at night—even as I mostly stopped dancing and my fitness goals changed: Rather than trying to be the best dancer I could be, I was just trying to be a healthy adult who could do the activities I loved (like running and hiking) without getting injured.

All that stretching wasn’t hurting anything, but as someone with no mobility issues and lots of natural flexibility, it probably wasn’t helping much either. I don’t necessarily blame myself for my stretching overkill: The post-workout stretch is so ubiquitous and so closely tied to the workout itself that it’s easy to think no session is complete without one—and that the more, the merrier.

There’s no arguing that stretching is a vital part of a well-rounded workout routine. But for active, healthy people exercising multiple times a week, skipping some of those post-workout stretches will probably do…absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact, stretching just two or three times a week is enough to maintain muscle integrity and joint range of motion, according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). And whether those sessions happen after a workout or some other time in your day makes little to no difference.

But stretching is only becoming more popular, not just as a workout add-on but as an activity of its own, with stretching studios and classes proliferating over the past several years. A couple minutes of scrolling on fitness influencer Instagram might even have you think that the right stretching routine is the key to curing all your aches and pains or finally “hacking” your recovery.

In reality, stretching is important, but not magical, and we only need a little of it to reap its benefits. So why do we have so much stretching guilt?

Why we stretch to begin with

The purpose of stretching is to help our bodies move better. How, exactly, stretching does that depends on what kind of stretching you’re doing, says Heather Milton, RCEP, CSCS, an exercise physiologist at NYU Langone’s Sports Performance Center.

Dynamic stretches, like shoulder circles or leg swings, involve moving through a joint’s range of motion, she says. We typically do dynamic stretches as part of a warmup prior to working out “so we have full range of motion to move when we’re doing that activity,” Milton says. “[Stretching] activates muscles and helps lubricate the joints and increase our body temperature, which allows us to do that activity with more ease.”

Static stretches are what most of us think of when we think of stretching: reaching down to touch your toes to stretch your hamstrings or hanging out in a low lunge to stretch your hip flexors. “It’s pushing to a point where the muscle is on a stretch, which is typically closer to the end range for that joint, and holding that position,” Milton says. “We’re telling the nerves that contract the muscle to quiet down by holding that position for a more prolonged period of time.”

Static stretching is more about maintaining or increasing long-term flexibility, whether our muscles are tight due to lots of repetitive exercise, from sitting for long periods of time, or just from getting older.

In simpler terms, stretching improves flexibility and mobility, which allows our bodies to have access to their full range of motion. “When we don’t have that, we run into problems,” says exercise physiologist Tom Holland, CSCS, CISSN.

One of those problems could be compensatory injuries, where one part of your body has to overcompensate for another’s tightness or lack of mobility, according to Holland. “That leads you to do your activities of daily living and your exercise in a way that’s not natural,” he says. “Your muscles aren’t going to fire the way they should, and that’s where we get hurt—and not necessarily in the place where you’re tight.”

Stretching vs. warming up vs. cooling down

Stretching, warming up, and cooling down all play a role in optimizing our exercise routines and keeping us as injury-free as possible. But the three are often conflated with one another, leading to some of the confusion many of us have about when we should stretch—and why.

Case in point: Show up to any local 5K race, and you’ll probably see runners leaning up against a tree to stretch their calves with the intention of “warming up.” But as Milton points out, not only do the static stretches that are still so commonly done pre-exercise don’t warm your body at all (because, by definition, you’re not moving while you’re doing them). But studies have shown¹ that holding static stretches can temporarily reduce our muscles’ strength and power by 10 percent or more, and may even predispose us to injury when done pre-workout.

An actually-effective warmup involves dynamic stretches geared toward the specific activity you’re going to do, and gentle cardio like jumping jacks or butt kicks. “The purpose of the warmup is to get the blood flowing and raise the core temperature,” Holland says. “It’s low-level aerobic activity that gets your body ready.”

Warming up is “basically moving slowly from a rested state to an exercise state,” Milton says. “The cooldown is the reverse of that.”

For many of us, it’s the cooldown that’s long been synonymous with stretching when, really, it’s all about “moving from a highly sympathetic active state—when your body is under the good stress of exercise and your sympathetic nervous system is turned on and your heart rate is up—toward a parasympathetic state—slowing down the heart rate and the respiratory rate,” Milton says. “We want to move away from that sympathetic state at the end of a workout in order to move toward recovery.”

Could some static stretches be part of that post-workout cooldown? Absolutely. But do they have to be? Not really. Your cooldown could instead be some breathing exercises, a post-workout meditation, or a post-run walk—whatever is going to downregulate your nervous system and help you transition out of exercise mode.

“Everyone tends to do a lot of something a little bit when we’re supposed to do a little bit a lot.” —Tom Holland, CSCS, CISSN

What stretching can—and can’t—do

That said, it does make sense to get your stretching done post-workout, considering it’s best to stretch when your body is already warm. But it’s more about efficiency than efficacy because there’s no evidence to suggest doing your stretches immediately following a workout is any more effective than doing your stretches, say, later that day while you’re watching Love Island, says Gregory Rubin, DO, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery at Naples Comprehensive Health.

“You’re not preventing any injuries by doing it right after,” Dr. Rubin says. It’s not affecting your recovery, nor will it affect whether you experience delayed onset muscle soreness, or even if you get overuse injuries² from activities like running. “There’s no clear tie between stretching and athletic performance,” he says.

What stretching can do is help prevent those injuries and pain points that stem from overly tight muscles or lack of mobility, such as hamstring strains or lower back pain. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking stretching will be the fix to anything that feels tight or painful, says Ari Kaplan, PT, DPT, a physical therapist at ATI Physical Therapy. Sometimes we’re tight because our body is trying to protect itself in response to another issue, one that likely can’t be fixed with stretching.

“Anytime we have something where we stretch it and we’re not gaining motion or long-term relief, that often indicates that there’s something else going on,” he says, such as a postural problem or an overactive muscle.

How much should you *really* be stretching—and when?

When I look back on why I used to stretch so much, I realize I had the misconception that being more flexible would somehow make me a healthier, fitter person overall.

But in reality, unless your sport or activity demands some specific hypermobility (like ballet, gymnastics, or pitching for baseball), we really only need as much flexibility as supports our natural range of motion. When you push for mobility that goes further than that, you can injure yourself because, at a certain point, “it’s not just muscle flexibility that may be limiting you,” Milton says. “It’s joint mobility—and that’s okay.”

Being very flexible comes with its own issues, after all. “With mobility comes susceptibility to injury,” Holland says. “The more mobile a joint is, the greater the likelihood of injury.” And at some point, the flexibility of a muscle begins to compromise its strength. “You can lengthen the muscle to the point that you may actually lose some power,” Dr. Rubin says. “You can tip the scales of your athletic performance.”

So how much—and when—should you really be stretching? When it comes to dynamic stretches, consider them a must as part of your warmup every time you work out or play a sport, Milton says.

For static stretches, as long as you don’t have any mobility issues or injuries, incorporate them into your routine a few times a week—whether that’s after a workout or some other time. (Just make sure your body isn’t cold when you do them.) Holding stretches between 15 and 30 seconds is plenty, according³ to numerous⁴ studies⁵, and stretching all your major muscle groups shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes.

Stretch only to the point of mild discomfort, not pain. If you’re holding your breath, you’ve probably gone too far, Milton says. Remember: As long as you don’t have any significant joint or muscle tightness, stretching can just be about maintaining the mobility you already have, she says.

“Everyone tends to do a lot of something a little bit when we’re supposed to do a little bit a lot,” Holland says. “It’s way more simple than people make it out to be.”