1) Stretching improves your motivation to do other types of exercise:
If you’re feeling stiff and tight, you’re not moving well so your motivation to do more movement will not be very high because in this condition it will feel uncomfortable. However, if you’re moving well and easily, you will feel like you want to do more movement.
This can work in the short term and the long term. If you’re thinking about doing some exercise but feel tight, a few stretches will loosen you up and as you begin to move more freely you’ll find yourself ready to take on some challenging exercise. Over the long term, the more flexible and free moving you become, the less you feel stiff and therefore you feel better about getting up to move whether it be to do some strength training or endurance exercise.
2) Stretching helps to offset part of the aging process:
Yes, that’s right. There are certain parts of the aging process which we can impact by our daily choices. One of the fitness qualities that people loose as part of the aging process is flexibility. This can be offset by flexibility exercise, much in the same way that losses in strength can be offset by strength training. Not all parts of the aging process are out of our control. Choosing to stretch regularly is choosing to take control over part of the aging process that you can influence, helping to keep you physically young.
3) Stretching is a great way to de-stress:
One of the things I often tell people about stretching, is that it’s not always about flexibility, sometimes it’s about muscular tension. When we get stressed, our muscles often tense up, particularly around the shoulders and neck. Often, these muscles stay tensed up even after the stressful event has passed, so you will likely continue to feel stressed even though the trigger is no longer there. Stretching the muscles throughout the body will help them to let go of the tension they are holding on to, making you feel better and helping you to de-stress and relax.
4) Stretching improves your ability to do other types of exercises:
Many people have tight muscles due to things they do daily. For example, sitting at a desk all day will often lead to tight hamstrings. Tight hamstrings will inhibit your ability to get into certain positions for strength training exercises, which will make them more difficult, less safe and less effective. Ever tried getting into a good position for a bent over row with tight hamstrings? Additionally, if your muscles are tight, you may struggle to perform exercises with a full range of motion, which will inhibit your exercise performance and the results that you will get from those exercises. You may not have a goal of being more flexible, but being more flexible can help you with the goal that you do have.
5) Stretching improves the way you feel about yourself:
Tight muscles often lead to poor posture. Being permanently held in poor posture all day by muscles that are tight makes you feel rubbish, low on energy, and you may even feel poorly about how you look. Picture someone with poor posture: their chest muscles have tightened due to frequent driving and computer work, which rounds their shoulders forward. Rounded shoulders pushes their head forward slightly and pushes their lower stomach out. Nobody is going to feel good about themselves with this posture. Now, picture someone who stretches daily. No tightness in their chest muscles means they can stand upright with their head held high. Standing upright pulls their spine into natural alignment which keeps their stomach pulled in and abdominal muscles lengthened. The body doesn’t have to spend all day compensating for any misaligned joints, so it is able to feel energetic.
I know which person I’d rather be.
Media representations of fitness rarely have images of people demonstrating the benefits of flexibility or even stretching in general, so it’s easy to see why stretching may be low on people’s list of fitness priorities. But at the heart of every fitness goal is a desire to feel better, and I hope this article has illustrated to you that no matter who you are or what your goals are, stretching will help you do that.
You might wonder if you have time for stretching, but you don’t have to hold every stretch for 30 to 60 seconds to get a benefit. It’s great if you can, but if you’re tight for time, you’ll still feel better with a 10 second stretch for each muscle than no stretching at all. While research has shown that a 20 minute stretching session can reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics, you might only need to do 5-10 minutes of stretching to help you feel better.
-Steve Shreeve (updated October 2021).