Movement Over Muscles: How to Choose a Stretch Routine That Works for You

Ever hear a voice whispering in your ear,  “If only you were a bit more limber…'” after your bones and joints creak and crunch and your muscles feel like beef jerky?

Then you vow to do those wildly uncomfortable stretches you learned in junior high school P.E. classes, or buy some leggings and try out a yoga class.

But how do you figure out what’s best for you and your unique needs? Should you rely solely on what feels good, or is it necessary for it to hurt a bit to actually be useful? The answers aren’t always straightforward and frustrating to get it right. And often it can lead to a sense that stretching simply just doesn’t work.

The key is to understand exactly how to choose precisely what you need and get rid of what you don’t and finally make it work for you.

In this article, we’ll explore how to do just that: Understand the principles of effective stretching, modifying them to fit your unique needs, and gain a powerful tool for improving your everyday mobility.

Crafting Your Personal Flexibility Blueprint

The process for figuring out what will work best for you takes a little bit of time but it’s not terribly complicated and we’ve helped tens of thousands of clients unlock their best strategy.

It comes down to these fundamental steps:

What Do You Really Need to Stretch?

First, and most important is understanding that your body’s flexibility and mobility needs are less about isolating specific muscles and more about focusing on the movements and positions that challenge you in daily life. It’s a common misconception that effective stretching means breaking your body into parts and that an exercise should ONLY be for your hamstrings or your calf or your pinky finger.

Instead the real key to movement freedom is identifying the particular positions and movements that are currently difficult for you.

Think about the everyday activities that you find challenging due to limited mobility. Do you struggle when bending forward to tie your shoes? Is squatting down to reach something under the kitchen sink a task filled with discomfort? Perhaps reaching up to the top shelf in your closet seems like a feat. These everyday experiences are revealing indicators of where more mobility would be actually useful for you. They provide intuitive benchmarks to guide your stretching routine, making it both practical and personalized.

Notice when and where you feel restricted. Is it during long hours at your desk, causing stiffness in your back and neck? Or maybe it’s during a weekend hobby, like gardening or cycling, where you feel your movements are not as fluid as they could be.

These observations are crucial in understanding your body’s unique stretching requirements. Once you’ve identified these areas, it’s time to explore positions that specifically cater to improving these movements.

For instance, if sitting on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you is uncomfortable, incorporating forward bend type exercises can be beneficial. If rotating your torso feels restricted, twists and side stretches can help improve that.

The clues are there, you just have to do a little bit of introspection.

Remember, the goal of stretching isn’t just to achieve a certain level of flexibility for its own sake. It’s to make your day-to-day activities just that much easier to do. By focusing on the specific positions and movements that you struggle with, your stretching routine becomes a targeted tool for enhancing your overall quality of life.

In the following sections, we will delve deeper into how to develop a stretching routine tailored to these needs, ensuring that you not only achieve greater flexibility but do so in a way that directly affects how you need to move everyday.

Choosing Stretches for Your Maximum Benefit

First up is figuring out what you’ll start with!

When it comes to stretching, one size does not fit all. Everybody has their own particular attributes, and while there are certainly fundamental positions and movements that help nearly everyone, it certainly doesn’t mean that we all have to look the same doing them!

This personalization starts with acknowledging where you are at the moment and not worrying about perfectly emulating a model or ideal form.

The goal is to enhance your flexibility and mobility, not to perform stretches perfectly.

You Can Only Start From Where You Are: Practice To Adapt As Needed

Begin by assessing your current level. For instance, a great starting point would be looking at fundamental positions such as:

• A squat
• Sitting with your legs straight in front of you
• Reaching your hand up and behind your neck
• Reaching your hand behind you and up your back

These positions might sound simple, but they can tell you a lot about where you are currently at in terms of flexibility.

Similarly, fundamental movements such as stooping down with both feet parallel or squatting/kneeling with one leg in front and the other behind can provide insights into your mobility.

When practicing these movements, pay attention to any discomfort or resistance you feel. This awareness is the first step in customizing your stretching routine.

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Don’t hesitate to make adjustments to a stretch to suit your body’s needs. You don’t need permission to modify a stretch. If a particular pose or movement doesn’t feel right, it’s more beneficial to adapt it to your comfort level than to force your body into an uncomfortable position. This adjustment might mean reducing the range of motion, using props for support, or even changing the stretch altogether.

Practical flexibility involves multiple muscles and joints working in coordination. Very often it’s not just one muscle that limits your movement. So focusing solely on stretching a single muscle may not yield the desired improvement in mobility.

Instead, consider the coordinative factor – how different parts of your body work together in a particular movement. For example, if you’re having difficulty with a deep squat, you could spend a lot of time figuring out if it’s one of the muscles that rotate your hips, one particular area of your spine or ankles, or a half dozen other areas…

There’s nothing wrong with that, but we’ve found that if you spend the majority of the time simply working on your squatting pattern in a variety of different ways, that it will improve.

How To Spot Red Flags And Adjust

Next up is how to know what to avoid, and how to change if things don’t seem to be clicking yet. But it’s important to understand that making changes to your routine doesn’t always mean starting from scratch or abandoning your current exercises. Often, small modifications can make a significant difference.

One key aspect of smart stretching is knowing how to identify overstretching. Lingering soreness that persists beyond the normal recovery period can be a sign that you’re pushing your muscles too hard. Similarly, if you’re not making progress in your flexibility or mobility – or worse, if you’re regressing – it’s a clear indication that your current approach might not be working.

Now, flexibility gains usually follow the pattern of relatively quick progress but then much more gradual changes over time. But a complete lack of progress or persistent discomfort suggests a need for change in your routine. Personally, my first step is to decrease everything. Decrease how much, how often, and how hard.

Cut it in half. It’s counterintuitive but in my experience with many clients and patients, and with my own training as well, is that people are simply doing too much.

The threshold for improving our flexibility and mobility is a lot lower than we think. And if you would indeed benefit from doing more, it’s easy to just add a little bit more time/frequency/intensity and see what happens. But starting out with a lot of intensity, frequency, and volume is not only unnecessary, it’s counterproductive.

If you experience undue soreness or stagnation, often the problem is you’re using too much force and stretching beyond what your body is ready for.

Stretching should be about gently expanding your range of motion, not forcing your body into uncomfortable positions. Our nervous system naturally responds to what it perceives as overstretching by tensing the muscles as a protective measure.

Fighting this response is not only ineffective but can also lead to going beyond your current capacities and that’s where problems start to build up.

Reroute and Pivot As Needed

If adjusting your technique still doesn’t bring the desired results, consider exploring different exercises. There’s no single exercise that’s perfect for everyone. As we talked about, before completely overhauling your routine try tweaking the stretches you’re currently doing. Change your positioning, add some support, be a little less forceful. These small adjustments can bring big changes.

Understanding your body’s responses and being willing to make adjustments is a crucial part of a successful stretching routine. Listen to your body, recognize the signs of overstretching, and be open to making small, smart tweaks. By doing so, you’ll discover a stretching routine that not only works for you but also evolves with your body’s changing needs.

The Dynamic Difference: Transforming Stretching with Movement

Another very common oversight is only performing static, non-moving stretches. While static stretching is a great starting point, particularly when you’re learning to relax into stretching, it’s just the beginning of a comprehensive stretching routine. To reap the most benefits, introducing dynamic movement is key.

Static stretching, with its mindful focus on shape and position, is undeniably beneficial. It allows for targeted work on specific areas. These moments of focused stretching can bring a sense of calm and increased awareness to your body’s capabilities and limitations and you can sprinkle these throughout the day pretty easily.

However, the real game-changer is dynamic movement. Traditional stretching methods often miss this crucial element, focusing instead on maintaining static positions. But our daily lives demand more than just static flexibility; they require the ability to move well through a variety of positions and scenarios.

Integrating dynamic movement into your stretching routine bridges the gap between static flexibility and functional mobility. It trains your body to move fluidly and efficiently, preparing it for diverse ranges of motion.

For example, reaching up to grab something from a high shelf or bending and twisting to pick up an object involves more than stretching individual muscles; these are full-body movements that require coordinated mobility. These movements are more than just stretching one or two muscles; and training for those require full body dynamic mobility.

This is where we can go beyond thinking an exercise is “just a stretch” and realize that it all can be coordination, balance, and functional strength together.

We can teach all the disparate body parts to work together in concert, improving our overall movement efficiency. This is the real tangible benefit of dynamic movement that challenges us to improve our existing ranges of motion. You can already see how this is particularly beneficial for athletes but it’s also very useful for anyone looking to improve their performance in physical activities.

And dynamic stretching can be more engaging and enjoyable! It adds variety to your routine, keeping both your body and mind actively involved. You’re not just passively holding a position; you’re exploring and learning how your body moves and responds.

Discover your Perfect Stretch