Evening Stretch Routine to Unwind and Recharge

Some days are just non-stop and before you know it, you’re wound up tighter than a steel spring.

While it’s definitely easier to knock back a couple glasses of whiskey or wine, we have something that’s substantially healthier for you and will help you recover…

…so you can do it all over again tomorrow – 🙂

Stretching as a Recovery Strategy

Recovery is a buzzword nowadays.

From ice baths to red lights and CBD gummies to mushrooms that only grow on eastfacing endangered trees. And some of that stuff might actually work!

We previously wrote about effective active recovery techniques.

And one that’s worked for millions of people throughout all time is gentle, relaxed stretching. There’s lots of claims out there for stretching, but one thing that’s proven again and again is its value for relaxation and stress reduction.

Evening Stretch Routine for Relaxation and Recovery

Here’s Ryan showing you his exact pre-sleep routine to help you shake off the tensions of the day and drift off into a deep slumber.

Evening Stretch Routine Breakdown

Standing Body Wave

• The key here is to make the wave slowly travel down and up, moving each body area in sequence.
• This can be difficult at first, so it’s best to focus on one cue at a time. Such as “hips forward” or “back rounding”.
• With practice this will become much smoother.

Toe Squat to Seiza Toe Stretch

• No matter how low you can drop down, keep your upper body tall and sink straight down.
• Let your knees naturally jut forward.
• Lean forward just a bit to keep your balance point right in the middle.

A-Frame

• To help keep this relaxed, don’t worry so much. about making your arms and legs straight.
• Make the focus on lifting your hips up high.
• And breathing deep and steadily.

Modified Pigeon Prone Rotation to Mod Pigeon

• This is a great exercise to seek out where there is tension in your hips and back.
• Do a slow rotation and feel where you should sink into it more and release tension.
• A nice slow exhalation helps a lot here.

Plow

• Don’t get too intimidated here, the goal isn’t perfectly straight legs all the way back.
• The goal is to relax your shoulders and neck and see if you can use your legs to help do that.
• Don’t hold your breath!

Supine Knee Drops (Side to Side)

• Play with either keeping your shoulders flat and relaxing the knees down as much as you can, or with letting your shoulders rise up and getting your knees down all the way.
• See which is more relaxing for you in the moment.
• Alternate between those two approaches and observe how that changes all the time.

Corpse Pose Breathing

• This looks pretty easy and it should! But it’s more than just plopping down on your back.
• This is a great opportunity to observe how your body is doing, and what areas of tension may still be lingering.
• As you find them, breathe in deeply and focus on the exhalation releasing the tension.

Gentle Stretching for Proper Down-Regulation

Down-regulating means finding a way to shift your body from a state of high alert to relaxation. Easy and mindful stretching before bed can help you achieve this, promoting deeper, more restorative sleep.

The key is EASY! In this practice you aren’t trying to improve your mobility, this is the time to tune in to what’s holding tension and to gently get it to release. This can significantly reduce stress levels, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Incorporating gentle stretching into your nightly routine is a simple yet powerful way to improve your quality of life. Not only will it help you relax and sleep better, but it will also enhance your physical health and readiness for the challenges of the next day. So, take a few minutes each night to stretch, breathe deeply, and let go of the day’s stress.

Your body and mind will thank you.

Enhanced Recovery and Physical Capabilities

Consistent down-regulating practices, like a nightly stretching routine, can also enhance your overall physical capabilities. More than just structural effects such as improving circulation, stretching aids in improving your body awareness. You’ll soon be able to transfer what you’re learning in the stretching to help you sense and relax tensions as they happen during the day.

This is a huge part of proper auto-regulation, an enhanced understanding of how to appropriately adjust your training based on how you are doing in the moment. And that is a massive key to properly recovering and benefitting from your workouts.

How to Take Your Evening Routine Even Further

Using the easy stretches in this routine are a great start for calming your body down and preparing to restful, restorative sleep.

But if you wanna take things a bit further, Ryan and Andy pooled their insights from over 32,493 evenings to share:

• Their personal wind-down strategies
• Dealing with travel and unexpected disruptions to the routine
• Finding the right fit for you instead of copying what someone else tells you to do

…all delivered straight to your ear canal in classic GMB style 🙂

Rant Level: 🤷‍♂️ mild // Practicality: 🧰 high

Don’t overcomplicate it, okay?

Recovery is important, but stressing over the details is counterproductive.

That’s why we created a program specifically to take the guesswork out of effective active recovery:

Learn Our Favorite Movements to Loosen Up and Recuperate Quickly with GMB Recovery

Recovery is also available as part of the Regulator bundle.