Is it necessary to stretch my muscles after training?

When we published an article some time ago about recovery and its importance for muscle growth, one of the most important factors was proper pre- and post-workout stretching. Even so, it's rare to find a person in the gym who doesn't stretch thoroughly after a workout.

Therefore, in today's article, let's outline how important this stretching is and what regular stretching can can bring to all regular and professional exercisers.

Stretching after training? Why?

When we talk about stretching before training, everyone probably remembers its effect on minimizing the risk of injury. But few know that stretching after a workout is at least as importantas it prepares the muscles for recovery and calms them down after a hard workout.

This "pumping up" is nothing but tightened muscles that need to be relaxed again with static stretching. Even though after the first post-workout stretch you probably won't get any moreyou won't feel any significant change, regularity can bring many positive benefits. Some of the most important ones include:

• Overall body relaxation after exercise
• Maintaining tendon and muscle flexibility
• Improving overall recovery
• Better perception of individual muscles (mind-muscle connection)
• Increased efficiency during exercise due to better perception of muscles

How long to stretch for optimal results?

Although most athletes don't like to hear it, after a workout you should take the time to ideally10-15 minutes of light aerobic activity and about the same amount of time for stretching. For example, walking slowly on the treadmill will lower your heart rate and your body will slowly begin to adjust back to normal.

After this activity, the stretching itself should come next. This must not be painful and certainly not done with abrupt movements. For each exercise, get into a position where you feel a slight tension in your muscles and stay in that position for at least 10 seconds. You can then relax the muscle and repeat the exercise again after a while.

Which exercises should I choose?

The composition of specific stretching exercises always depends on the trained area and your weaknesses. For example, if you need better mobility for deadlift a squatyou'll need to focus more on ankle mobility, hip mobility, and so on. Primarily, of course, you need to focus on the areas that you've done in a particular workout, because those are the ones that need to be loosened up and supported in terms of recovery.

If you're looking for inspiration on specific exercises to do after a workout, you can definitelywe can recommend instructional videos, in which the exercises are usually very well described and captured. One such video can be for example this one, which was created by popular trainer Adam Michael Brewer:

How often to stretch?

Now that you know how long to stretch and what exercises to choose, it would be good to remind you of the optimal frequency of stretching. We already outlined in our article on stretching before training if you're going to be stretching 20 hours out of the entireof your day and 4 hours of activity, your tendons and muscles will not be very flexible.

In my experience, when I stretched 3 times a day (in the morning, after training and beforebefore bed), I was much more flexible and my range of motion improved not only for the basic exercises but also for the supplemental exercises.

So what is the conclusion?

If you can manage to squeeze in a two-hour workout at the gym, definitely dedicate at least 10 minutes to a final stretch. Even if you only stretch after your workout, over time you will feel a very positive effect not only on recovery, but also on muscle relaxation and better muscle sensation after the workout.

We hope this article has given you at least a little insight into the importance of post-workout stretching and if it hasIf you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask in the comments, we'd be happy to answer them.

And what should a pre-workout warm-up look like? Find out here.