The best stretches target the muscles that get tightest from everyday life: your hips, hamstrings, chest, shoulders, and calves. But which stretches work best depends on when you’re doing them. Before exercise, moving stretches that mimic your workout warm your muscles and boost power. After exercise or on their own, held stretches build lasting flexibility. Here’s a practical guide to both types, plus the specific stretches worth adding to your routine.
Dynamic Stretches Before a Workout
Dynamic stretching means moving your joints through their full range of motion in a controlled, repetitive way. You’re not holding a position. Instead, you’re doing 10 to 12 repetitions of a movement that warms up the muscles you’re about to use. This raises muscle temperature, reduces resistance, and increases flexibility in real time. It also primes your nervous system, helping muscles fire faster and with more coordination.
Research consistently shows dynamic stretching improves power, sprint speed, and jump height when done before activity. Some effective examples:
- Leg swings: Stand on one leg (hold a wall if needed) and swing the other leg forward and back like a pendulum. Do 10 to 12 swings per leg. This opens up the hip flexors and hamstrings.
- Walking lunges: Step forward into a lunge, then drive up and step into the next one. Keep your torso upright. These activate your quads, glutes, and hip flexors all at once.
- Arm circles: Extend your arms out to the sides and make progressively larger circles, 10 forward and 10 backward. This loosens the shoulders and upper back.
- High knees: March or jog in place, driving your knees up toward your chest. This warms up the hip flexors and gets your heart rate moving.
- Torso twists: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and rotate your upper body side to side, letting your arms swing naturally. Great for warming up your core and lower back.
If you only have five minutes before a run, a game, or a gym session, dynamic stretching is the better choice. Save the long, held stretches for afterward.
Static Stretches for Flexibility
Static stretching is what most people picture when they think of stretching: you hold a position until you feel a gentle pull, then stay there. Harvard Health recommends spending a total of 60 seconds on each stretch for the best flexibility gains. If you can hold a stretch for 15 seconds, repeat it four times. If you can hold for 20 seconds, three repetitions gets you to that 60-second total.
A 2019 study found that static stretching right before intense activity can temporarily reduce strength and power. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means the timing matters. Static stretches are most useful after a workout, before bed, or as a standalone flexibility routine. If you do want to include a static stretch in your warm-up, keep each hold to 15 to 30 seconds and pair it with dynamic movements.
Best Stretches for Your Lower Body
Hamstring Stretch
Tight hamstrings are one of the most common complaints, especially if you sit for long periods. Lie on the floor near the corner of a wall or doorframe. Place one leg flat on the ground and raise the other, resting your heel against the wall. Keep a slight bend in the raised knee, then gently straighten the leg until you feel the stretch along the back of your thigh. Hold for about 30 seconds, then switch sides. Using the wall gives you a stable, controlled stretch without straining your back.
Hip Flexor Stretch
Your hip flexors shorten when you sit all day, which can pull your pelvis forward and contribute to lower back pain. Kneel on your right knee (place a folded towel under it for comfort) with your left foot planted in front of you, knee bent. Keep your back straight and your core tight. Lean forward, shifting your weight onto the front leg, until you feel a stretch in the front of your right thigh and hip. Hold for 30 seconds and switch sides. The key here is keeping your torso upright rather than leaning forward at the waist.
Quadriceps Stretch
Stand near a wall for balance. Grab one ankle behind you and gently pull your heel toward your glutes until you feel a stretch in the front of your thigh. Keep your knees close together and tighten your abs so your lower back doesn’t arch. Hold for 30 seconds per side. This is a simple stretch, but form matters. If your knee drifts outward or your back arches, you lose the benefit.
Calf Stretch
Stand at arm’s length from a wall with one foot behind the other. Bend your front knee while keeping your back leg straight and your back heel pressed into the floor. Keep your hips facing forward and your back straight. You’ll feel the stretch in the lower leg behind you. Hold for 30 seconds and switch. Tight calves are common in runners and anyone who wears heels regularly, and this stretch hits both the larger calf muscle and the deeper one underneath.
Best Stretches for Your Upper Body
Chest and Shoulder Doorway Stretch
Stand in a doorway and place your forearms on either side of the frame, elbows at about shoulder height. Step one foot forward through the doorway until you feel a stretch across your chest and the front of your shoulders. Hold for 30 seconds. This counteracts the hunched posture that comes from desk work, driving, and phone use. You can adjust the stretch by raising or lowering your elbows on the frame.
Upper Back Stretch
Extend your arms in front of you at shoulder height and clasp your hands together. Round your upper back, pushing your hands away from your body as if you’re hugging a large ball. You should feel the stretch between your shoulder blades. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds. This pairs well with the doorway stretch since it targets the opposing muscle group.
Neck Side Stretch
Sit or stand with good posture. Gently tilt your right ear toward your right shoulder until you feel a stretch on the left side of your neck. You can place your right hand lightly on your head for a slightly deeper stretch, but don’t pull. Hold for 15 to 30 seconds per side. Neck muscles carry a surprising amount of tension, especially if you work at a computer.
PNF Stretching for Deeper Gains
Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, or PNF, is a more advanced technique that alternates between contracting and relaxing a muscle to push past your normal range of motion. The most common version is the hold-relax method: you stretch a muscle to its comfortable limit, then contract it against resistance (a partner’s hand, a towel, or a wall) for about 5 to 10 seconds without moving the joint. After releasing the contraction, you immediately stretch a little deeper.
PNF stretching tends to produce larger flexibility gains than static stretching alone. Interestingly, the traditional explanation for why it works (that the contraction causes the muscle to reflexively relax) doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny. Research published in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation found that muscle activity actually increased after the contraction rather than decreasing. The gains may come instead from increased stretch tolerance, meaning your nervous system learns to accept a greater range of motion. Regardless of the mechanism, PNF is effective, though it’s best learned with a partner or physical therapist before you try it solo.
When Stretching Can Do More Harm Than Good
Stretching feels universally safe, but there are situations where it can set you back. If you’re dealing with a fresh injury like a muscle pull, sprain, or fracture, stretching the area can worsen the damage and delay healing. Any joint that feels unstable or wobbly after a dislocation or serious sprain should not be stretched until it’s been evaluated.
People with hypermobility, whose joints are already unusually flexible, need to be cautious about overstretching. Adding more range of motion to an already loose joint increases vulnerability to injury. Similarly, conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or other connective tissue disorders can make tissues more fragile, and aggressive stretching can cause damage.
Pay attention to what your body tells you during any stretch. A gentle pulling sensation is normal. Sharp, stabbing, or shooting pain is not. If you feel a sudden pop, a tearing sensation, or numbness and tingling, stop immediately. Tingling usually means you’re compressing a nerve rather than stretching a muscle. And if an area is hot, swollen, or red from a recent injury, stretching it will only make the inflammation worse.