How long have you been using your current stretch routine? If it’s been a while, it might be time to shake things up. Which stretches are pushing you? Which ones aren’t? While your routine should gradually warm you up, it’s important to have stretches that you can feel getting those muscles warm and limber. If you are falling easily into all of your stretches, it might be time to add some more difficult moves to your current set.
Organize Your Stretches
You should have stretches for every occasion! Make sure you have warm-up stretches, improvement stretches (these are the ones for working on furthering your flexibility!), and cool down stretches, too. Go through the motions of your usual stretch routine. Are you effectively accomplishing the goals of these three categories? If not, it’s time to add some new stretches to your routine!
Stretch Everything
Do you have a full-body stretch? Whether you have one stretch that works you through your entire body or if you have several smaller targeted stretches that add up to cover everything, you should make sure that you are stretching everything from your arches to your shoulders when it’s time to warm-up. A good stretch pattern to accomplish this is a chest opener, a glute bridge, a figure-four stretch, a seated stretch, straight-leg pulls, bent-leg pulls, pancake stretches, and calf stretches.
