Stretching Routine?

michaelaarghh started this discussion · 4/7/2013

Okay, so I know this has been discussed to death, but I would love some more advice on stretching routines. At the moment I'm stretching every second night and foam rolling every night - I desperately want to be flexy! My issue is my hamstrings and calves, and I think my hip flexors maybe? Anyway - I wanted to ask; what is the difference between flexibility training stretches and just maintenance stretches? How do you know if you're overstretching? I would love to be stretching every night but I don't want to overdo it and I'm not sure what the difference is? Is it just that you don't push as hard? and just settle in the stretch?

1 reply

Storypole17 · 4/8/2013
I started out flexy training splits 1 night a week and back 1 night a week. Did this for 2 weeks. Then each week I added a day until I have 3 days of splits training and 3 days of back stretching each week. I always do my routine after my p90x workout. That way, my muscles are fatigued and I'm super warm. I too have extremely tight hamstrings and hip flexors. My shoulders are really tight too. But I've had great improvements over the last 5 months since I started! I never push into a stretch bc if I do, I won't be able to walk the next day. So I always relax, close my eyes, play soothing music, etc when I do my flexy training. I think how you go about it depends on the person. I know people that improve drastically with resistance stretching. That kind makes me super sore and sets me back. You might want to see what kind works for you! It's weird for me - I can only handle pushing myself when working on middle splits. For some reason, my body is able to handle it for those type of stretches :-). Good luck!