Does Stretching Make You Flexible?
I know I’m known as the “jokester” and the wise-ass of the elitefts™ writing staff, but I am asking this question in all seriousness. This goes out to all the mobility experts, strength coaches and yoga instructors…does stretching really make you any more flexible? Does anyone have firsthand knowledge of someone going from really tight to even somewhat flexible by laying on the floor and static stretching?
From what I witnessed over the years of being at gyms is that, much like a lot of other physical traits, flexibility is mostly genetic. I’ve known big guys who can do full splits and I have seen skinny people that were tight as hell. I know from my own personal experience that even as a small child, I wasn’t very flexible especially in my lower body. I remember getting yelled at by my elementary school music teacher for not being able to sit “Indian style” (or should I use the polictially correct term, Native American style) on the remnant of carpet provided to us because my hips just didn’t bend that way. She let the other kids laugh at me because of my physical shortcomings as I lay on the ground like I was road kill. Today they would call that bullying, I’m just saying.
I realized early on that static stretching wasn’t “warming me up” for heavy lifting. Plus I noticed that it had absolutely zero effect on my bodies overall flexibility. Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to figure out that mobility-type stuff like empty bar drills and a lot more very light warm-up sets worked a lot better.
So why are so many people taking such large chunks of their gym time wasting it with static stretching?
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Steve Pulcinella has been passionately strength training since he was 13 years old and competing in strength athletics since the age of 14. Fueled by his early influences of Strength and Health Magazine and the Wide World of Sports airing the World's Strongest Man, he strived to build the biggest and strongest body that he possibly could. He started out as a powerlifter and progressed into doing Strongman. His biggest pro Strongman title was the 1993 North American Champion, and he was selected as a competitor in the 1994 Worlds Strongest Man Contest. He has also been a Highland Games professional since 1994 and still competes as a top ranked master competitor. In 1995, Steve started Iron Sport Gym, a commercial gym in Philadelphia specializing in strength training, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, and Strongman. For more information, visit 
Static stretching my hip flexors has helped me a lot in relieving lower back pain, I generally have to stretch them out after a long day of sitting on my ass.
People stretch so much because other sites like livestrong says to. But I digress, I stretch for like 5 minutes , and foam roll for another couple of minutes.
Woops digress was the wrong word.
I agree that it is mostly genetic. My shoulders are very flexible, but my hips and hams aren’t. I spend most of my time stretching them and I still have trouble touching the floor or my toes without significantly bending my knees.
If there was an strength barbell exercise that required us to touch the floor, I suppose we would all likely develop the level of flexibility to do so.
I haven’t seen the magical day where I can touch the floor, with little effort. I think as long as do my lifts with a full ROM that should develop flexibility needed for a good quality of life.
Personally, I only stretch on off days for healing and circulation benefits. On these days I follow with Rumble Rolling every single muscle on my body.
Stretching does help with flexibility, but it is not the sole reason why one is flexible.
I used to be very inflexible in my late teens/early 20′s. When I was 22, I discovered Active Isolated Stretching: The Mattes Method. Over the course of two years I went from not being able to touch my toes to being 3″ away from a front split. This was while I was first increasing my squat from sub-200 lbs. to over 400 lbs.
Proper techniques used correctly and consistently yield wonderful benefits. I rarely stretch these days and I am not nearly as flexible as I once was (stupid time constraints), although I am still more flexible than I was in my early 20′s. I am 31 years old now.
Some static stretching when combined with foam, softball, or lacrosse ball rolling I do believe can help with mobility and overall movement. As we work out more and lift heavier, building muscle mass, stiffening up is GOING to happen, in fact, this in part is why we get so strong. We have rigid movement now. Where being flexible is good for some sports, being stiff and rigid can be good for others. Personally I pay close attention to rotator cuff flexibility along with my hips, let’s face it those are the two most commonly used joints. I think almost everyone without outstanding hip problems can achieve the splits. But it is mostly genetic and it will be easier for some and harder for others, as is the case with most things.
Warm up the muscle and then stretch it. If it doesn’t make you more flexible then either you’re doing it wrong or you are already flexible.
I gain flexibility from stretching on a consistant basis – every week or every day warming up and then stretching always makes me more flexible in the area of concentration.
Also, if I don’t warm up and then stretch my calves before I squat, I’m likely to tear my Achilles tendon…
There is a big difference in being stiff and being inflexible. You can still be flexible and be really stiff. Stiffness is the force it takes to move through a range of motion. Your ROM may be the same but the force it takes to get through that may change. The concept of stretch tolerance is the main drive that limits us in this. When to much load is placed we feel the stretch and reach our threshold and stop, this is a more of a mental safety mechanism then it is a actually physical inhibition. Think of someone who cannot get into a deep squat position with just their body weight, put a bar on their back with 225 and their ass hits the floor. So are they inflexible or just stiff. In lifting you want to have a good ROM and be stiff so that you can influence your stretch reflex and your tension length curve. If you want to get more flexible but maintain your stiffness (ideal) eccentric lengthening will do the trick.
The question I ask, is why do people pay for a gym membership, and all they DO is stretch? Is the foam mats at the gym so much better than your living room floor? Or is there some kind of osmosis taking place, by being inside a gym?
Yes it can, if you’re doing it right. Some years ago I learned all the stretching wisdom that’s conventionally taught is wrong (imagine that).
Check out the books and articles from a guy named Tom Kurz.
The new term for Indian style is “Criss-Cross Applesauce”… it’s stupid, but my 2 year old likes saying it.
I think stretching has helped immensely. I’m much more flexible than I ever was when I was younger. But i don’t stretch before I lift. (Static anyway.) I warm up with a empty barbell and foam roll. I do stretching after or on off days. You should check out Kelly Starrett on http://www.mobilitywod.com. Great stuff!
I don’t know about static stretching, but I have had success in the past, with “non-static stretching” or PNF stretching, joint mobility drills, and exercises with exaggerating ROM, like beyond the range push-ups on cinderblocks.
i never seen any grown man in my life bust a split without streching prior. Everytime i do split, people look at me googley eyed because im so big, but i stretch every night to be able to do it. any one thats inflexible can get more flexible by stretching, its just extremely uncofortable at first.
I played college soccer, and there were always those guys who more flexible than others. I didn’t do to much static stretching before a game or practice. We had our trainers incorporate more dynamic warmups. We incorporated static stretching at the end of the practice/game. I am not the most flexible person. All I cared about though was not pulling anything.
Yes.
A lot of the gains from stretching will come from stretching the tendons, reducing the influence from the GTO, and relaxation of the antagonist muscles… All of which you have to work on and all of which will be lost with inactivity.
Genetics will greatly affect this… but like all great things, genetics can be overcome.
Static stretching will give me the biggest benefit and if you look into the physiology of it, the longer you stretch the greater the gains.
I think flexibility is mostly genetic, but can be improved with work like anything else. I can get very close to a full split weighing 350+ and I don’t stretch except for sitting in a full squat for a minute or so a couple of times a week.
There’s a book coming out soon that can achieve the splits without really stretching much. That’s all I can say for now though….
In my opinion, you can waste you time static stretching or learn how to foam roll, use trigger point and develop a good dynamic warm up.
P.S. GTO’s don’t really deal with the stretch reflex, despite what you read everywhere. They are used in muscle contraction to make sure the muscle doesn’t tear, etc. Muscle spindles are what deal with the stretch reflex.
It seems like some people here could easily be make a false attribution error. Was it the stretching that made you so flexible or was it the fact that your were doing full squats. Maybe you would have gotten as flexible if you ignored the stretch and just did the squat. This is the sort of the reason I think that anecdotal evidence is a poor way to answer a question like this as people generally don’t understand confounding variables.
I too share Steve’s curiosity. It’s gotten to the point where I’m basically just ignoring static stretching and recently started doing some more research into other forms (although I’ve had problems finding good sources in the past). I continue to do foam rolling and full ROM exercises though. I’m at the stage where I think of the people sitting around the gym stretching as fools (especially since we have so many damn foam rollers lying around. Also, none of them seem to warm-up first).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OktcKhtMQ88
Check that video out. The problem with “training” for flexibilty is spending maybe 5 min on it, would you do the same with your workout?? of course not. If you want to get really flexiable you need to be just as agressive as if you where squatting. On the other hand, if your a powerlifter the need for flexibilty is not as important.
My experience is that static stretching does not help much in improving flexibility. I went from powerlifting to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and found out the hard way that the latter requires much greater flexibility in the hips. I have tried everything I can think of (except ART therapy) to improve my flexibility, including static stretching after BJJ classes for up to 1 hour and have not found this effort particularly helpful, although it did help me relieve some chronic hip pain that I had been experiencing. Age may be a factor for me, as I will soon turn 44, but I have seen people my age who do not have the same issue with flexibility. I have been at a loss in terms of finding a solution that will give me the results I am looking for commensurate with the level of effort I am putting in to achieve my goal of improving my hip flexibility.
@Bud: I’m 41 and have no issues with flexibility. At least not yet!
I think hydration is important and full range of motion: not necessarily in lifting, but little things like doing a full squat when picking the newspaper up from the driveway, etc.
@ld: I have indeed always full squatted. However, at no point in my post did I suggest cause and effect relationship between the splits and squats. Your point about confounding variables is very good though and applies to all aspects of lifting/training. It’s almost impossible to do a controlled study as all variables in life affect one’s training in some way and unless you live in an oxygen tent, it is not possible to change just one variable at a time. In spite of this, there are plenty of scientific journals out there that claim to have used statistics and scientific methods to devise an awesome training program…. Based on your point of confounding variables, I take all their advice with a grain of salt. Sometimes the hardest thing about being a scientist is knowing when to stop being a scientist and just listen (ask my wife if you want real data!). Even though I am a career scientist, I also know the value in tribal knowledge and when you combine this with the scientific mindset (ability to systematically identify the good stuff and the bullshit), you have the best of both worlds.
Steve P., if you read this, please run it by Kirk Nowack and get his opinion. One final point on lifting and a scientific approach is to those who continually use the same training routine all the time and expect to make gains: the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result.
FYI “Indian Style”, from what I was a kid, is now “pretzel-legged” for my daughter in preschool. Frickin political correctness!
I’ve seen the most progress with simple dynamic warm-ups, performing exercises at full ROM and PNF stretching particularly weak areas.
I definitely think that static stretching after warming up the muscles can improve flexibility. It is something that just has to be consistently worked upon. I have seen my baseball players go from barely being able to bend at the waist to touching the ground with their palms. Also, when I took jiu-jitsu, we would always be encouraged to get our hips more flexible. The touchstone seemed to be getting your knees on the ground in the butterfly stretch. After our training sessions, the instructor would walk around and stand on our knees while bracing himself on our shoulders. Although I wouldn’t really advocate this, I became extremely flexible. I would be careful to use terms like genetic limitations in any field ever. Talent is a myth.
James – that wasn’t necessarily directed at you, but in situations like this a lot of times it’s had to get any relevant information. Hard, but not impossible! With the informal nature of this question, it’s hard to know if the people responding truly appreciate the effect of third variables (from my experience, most people don’t. Hell, even trained scientists can be bad about this, especially outside their field). It’s also hard to get enough information in a short post to really gauge this. I liked what you were getting at though, I don’t discount anecdotal evidence, but I am very careful of who it comes from in regards to relevance.
It seems to me that especially in sports and athletic conditioning, anecdotal evidence tends to lead a lot of the scientific evidence and that people who only go by scientific/academic data tend to be far behind the curve – kinesiology majors tend to be a good example (not all of them obviously, but a large enough amount that it makes me quite sad). I’m currently trying to find a good way to help out a friend of mine from BJJ that is a second semester kinesiology major and thinks he knows it all, despite all of his information coming from one semester of kinesiology and reading Arthur Jones… I don’t want him to waste his time when it seems from what I have observed that this is a major that you really have to work at too get a lot out of. Kind of a tangent, but someone brought up BJJ and that’s where my train of thought went.
Its not indian style, its cross-legged. Just repremanded this past week by my sons school conselor
100% anecdotal but personally I don’t squat or bench until I do some form of static and dynamic stretching. I remember in highschool working up to a point that I could almost full split. I also remember not going for that type of stretching for a while and losing most of that ability. I was big on the “no static stretching pre workout due to 30% strength loss” for a while and hated it. It might be all mental for me but I need some static stretching before I lift or I just feel tight/off.
I agree it is just like any other aspect of fitness, some are born with it some aren’t, but it can be trained and improved on just like the rest.
IMO..static stretching is worthless when cold. After a proper warm-up when combined with dynamic movements they have their place.
The content of this article doesn’t seem to be aimed at answering the question, as opposed to complaining and bashing it.
Yeah: static stretching isn’t an ideal warm-up, old news. Empty bar drills (we talking about good mornings?) are good, and weights can certainly be used as part of stretching.
Hsoi’s recommendation of Kurz is good. He combines large-range strength movements with stretching routines.
Basically if flexibility isn’t improving, the stretching isn’t being done properly. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re slacking off, just that you’re not relaxing the muscle and it’s staying tight and tearing to get RoM instead of relaxing.
Kurz (and Tsatsouline) write about how to use body tension techniques, breathing etc. to get those gains instead of going through the motions.
How long has this ‘indian style’ thing been around for? I’ve been using ‘cross-legged’ since Canadian pre-school back in the early 90s.
Regardless of your opinion of him, I have made measurable gains in flexibility using techniques outlined by Pavel Tsatsouline. Due to his popularity, he has sold out a bit and some people will blindly buy anything with his name on it… Anyway, the techniques outlined in “Relax Into Stretch: Instant Flexibility Through Mastering Muscle Tension” have worked very well for me. Particularly in stretching muscles of the back, hip flexors, and hamstrings.
Dynamic work before, and “static” muscle tension work after, for me, has reduced muscle soreness and speeds recovery time after heavy sessions. (I foam role as well – can’t beat it).