Improve Flexibility with Research-Supported Stretching Protocols

This study suggests that a 30-second duration is an effective amount of time to sustain a hamstring muscle stretch in order to increase range of motion. No increase in flexibility occurred when the duration of stretching was increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds or when the frequency of stretching was increased from 1 to 3 times per day.

We start to experience a decrease in flexibility from about age 20 until about age 49 that's pretty dramatic. And then, of course, it will continue after age 49. But basically, it's a 10% decrease every 10 years.

We need to get at least 5 minutes per week of static stretching per muscle group, and... we need to divide that 5 minutes into sets of 30 seconds each.

Provided one trains hard enough and appropriately... you don't need to train resistance training 5 days a week in order to get significant improvements in strength and hypertrophy ... You can get a lot of positive results in those variables with less frequent training, certainly with 3 or 4 days a week of training.

For increasing limb range of motion, it does appear that... static type stretching is going to be more effective than dynamic and ballistic stretching.

Raising one's core body temperature by a bit by doing 5-7, maybe even 10, minutes of easy cardiovascular exercise or calisthenic movements... seems to be an ideal way to warm up the body stretching. We should be warm or warm up to stretch...

If you're going to embark on a flexibility and stretching training program, you don't need to push to the point of pain. In fact, it seems that even just approaching the point of pain is going to be less effective than operating at this 30-40% of intensity prior to reaching that pain threshold—the pain threshold being 100%.

Having really good limb range of motion... can be immensely beneficial for reducing pain, for... improving posture, improving our ability to perform, to walk, etc. And indeed, there's a whole literature that relates our limb range of motion to things like pain management, of things related to headache, and so on and so forth.

A 6-week training program using very low-intensity stretching had a greater positive effect on lower limb range of motion than did moderate-intensity static stretching.

There are now dozens, if not hundreds, of studies that show that a dedicated stretching practice can improve limb range of motion.

Maintaining some degree of flexibility—and maybe even enhancing range of motion and flexibility—is of immense benefit for offsetting injury provided it's not pushed too far.

The pain tolerance of yoga practitioners was double or more to that of non yoga practitioners.