Stretching Guidelines: When and For How Long?

Hi everyone, it’s Erienne from Peak Endurance. Today I want to talk about stretching. So recently, I’ve been getting the questions, “How long do I hold a stretch for? and “When is the best time to stretch?” And the answer is, everyone’s favorite, it depends. So it really depends on the goal of the stretching that you are doing. I’m going to talk about the three main goals typically we come across.

1. Goal number one is just to increase your range of motion. So if I have tight hamstrings, I want to increase their length.
2. Number two is joint mobility. Working on an actual joint versus a muscle, and decreasing something like hip stiffness, for example.
3. And then goal number three would be stretching for a warm up for an activity.

So when we’re talking about goal number one, increasing that actual range of motion, that actual tissue length. This is going to be something that you’re likely going to feel better if you do it to a muscle that’s already warmed up. So whether that’s a hamstring, for instance, you go for a walk, or it’s done post-activity. That is when you’re going to want to do these versus pre-activity.

And then duration-wise, for this increase in range of motion of a muscle, it’s all about how long of a time you spend at that tissues end range. The longer the better. I’ll often prescribe this as at least a one minute hold two or three times ideally. Especially if it’s a chronically tight muscle, like people who’ve had tight hamstrings forever. I’ll have them sit in a gentle hamstring stretch, for five to 10 minutes. And really just accumulate that time under that end range of motion.

For the second goal, the increase in joint mobility. This is again, going to feel better when that joint is a little bit warmed up. So after a gentle warm up, or jog or something along those lines. And this is going to be in that 30 to 60 second prescription range, about three times.

But this is going to be more of an oscillation. So when you get a shoulder or hip or knee joint mobilization, we often don’t hold it at that end range. We go into that end range and then back off, and then back into that end range and back off. So it’s 30 to 60 seconds, you’re going into tightness out of tightness, in the tightness, out of tightness. And then after that joint mobilization, we are then using that full range of motion. So if it’s immobilizing my hip, I’m going to do some body weight squats after.

And then that third goal of stretching is a warm up. People often ask, “Should I do static stretching before?” Should I do dynamic?” When should I do it?” So if the purpose is to warm up our joints and warm up our muscles before an activity, I like to do dynamic stretching. That’s like a walking knee-to-chest hug, take a step other leg, knee-to-chest hug, take a step. Or a floor sweeper to stretch that whole hamstring, calf, posterior chain complex. And with those, I’m just going into that end range and out of it right away. So it’s like a second hold. And I’m taking those muscles to that full range of motion, both passive and active. That’s going to be more of moving and going through these end ranges, but pretty short lived.

So again, when you stretch and how long you hold a stretch depends on your goals. I hope this helps.