Not Making Progress Stretching? 7 Reasons Why
Not Making Progress Stretching? 7 Reasons Why
Image credit: Wikisimpsons
Generally speaking, most people who have an effective training regimen can expect to see (or feel) some sort of progress in about 4-6 weeks. So if you’ve been diligently stretching for months but aren’t seeing any progress, it’s time to look at your stretching routine.
These are some of the most common mistakes I see people make when it comes to trying to train flexibility that can inhibit progress (or even lead to injury - backwards progress):
Mistake #1: Training Too Frequently
This is one of the most common mistakes because it comes from good intentions: enthusiasm for training and wanting to train consistently. The problem is that very few people’s bodies can tolerate stretching every single day. Just like strength training, your body needs time to repair the muscle damage that can happen during stretching (especially if you do a lot of active flexibility training). So unless you’ve specifically conditioned your body to be able to handle such a high volume of training, odds are you’ll see more progress if you dial it back.
My blanket advice: avoid stretching/training the same muscle group two days in a row. So if you like doing a full body stretching routine, that might mean just stretching 2-3 days per week. If you like splitting up your leg days and back days, you could alternate leg day, back day, rest day (and repeat). If you have other active hobbies (like weight lifting, yoga, pole, aerials, etc), try and do your flexibility training the same day, ideally right after so you’re already all warmed up! Then you can easily give your body a “proper” rest day the next day.
Related Blog Post: How Frequently Should I Stretch?
Mistake #2: Only Doing Passive Stretches
To make things abundantly clear - there is nothing wrong with passive stretching. Passive stretching is important! But only doing passive stretching isn’t a very effective way to increase your range of motion. Working to improve your active flexibility where you are strengthening your muscles to better support an increased range of motion is what leads to long-lasting flexibility gains. But you can’t actively stretch farther than your passive range, so passive stretching can be helpful to do earlier in your practice to get your body ready for end range active flexibility work, or be used in between active exercises to give you an opportunity to relax into the stretch.
How much active vs. passive stretching should you do? It may take some trial and error to find what works best for you. Personally, I skew my own training closer to 75% active stretches/exercises and 25% passive stretches within a training session.
Mistake #3: Not Warming Up
If you’re just doing some light mobility work or gentle stretching, you don’t really need to worry about warming up. But if you’re going to be doing some “serious” flexibility work, meaning spending 15+ minutes stretching with the intention of increasing your flexibility, you really should get your muscles warm before diving into your stretching.
Warming up your muscles not only prevents injury, it helps you stretch farther - so when you’re doing active flexibility work to strengthen your end range of motion, you’ll actually be at your “true” end range, and not just your normal-every-day-cold-flexibility-end-range.
If you’re not stretching directly after some other kind of excercise, spend at least 5-10 minutes warming up with a combination of bodyweight exercises and mobility work to get your joints used to working through the ranges of motion you’ll be doing in your practice.
Mistake #4: Not Choosing Exercises That Fit Your Goals
This may be an obvious one, but it’s something I see people post about on Reddit in r/flexibility every so often. Choose your stretching exercises based on what muscles you need to stretch (and strengthen) for your particular goal pose. If you want to be able to touch your toes, that movement takes a lot of hamstring flexibility, so you’ll likely be doing a lot of work on your hamstrings. If you want to do a middle split, that requires a lot of inner thigh flexibility, so just because you can do a front split does not mean you’re hitting the muscles needed for a middle split - etc.
If you’re not sure, google it! There are a bunch of great resources and illustrations that show what muscles are stretched in different positions. If you’re a book nerd like me, you can also look for stretching anatomy books at your local library, or buy them used off of Amazon. Some I’ve really liked that have great illustrations are:
Science of Yoga: Understand the Anatomy and Physiology to Perfect Your Practice ($8 used)
Yoga Anatomy ($13 used)
If you don’t feel confident building your own stretching routine, that’s where working with a coach can be a big help! Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but one of the most common types of private lessons I do with students is using an hour-long session to assess current flexibility & recommend exercises to address the challenge areas to help work towards their goals.
Mistake #5: Stretching with Poor Form
Similarly to understanding what muscles you need to strengthen and stretch to help build your stretching routine, you also need to make sure you’re actually stretching/strengthening those muscles and doing the exercises with good/proper form. Stretching with poor form not only means you probably aren’t actually lengthening the muscles you need to, but can also mean you’re putting more stress on other joints which can lead to injury. Some common examples I see are things like:
Rounding the back and tucking the pelvis in forward folds (compresses the low back and avoids a hamstring stretch)
Collapsing into the low back in backbends like cobras, bridges, and chest stands (compresses the low back)
Letting hips “un square” in lunges and front splits (avoids a hip flexor stretch)
Leaning forwards in front splits (avoids a hip flexor stretch)
Mistake #6: Pushing Through Pain
Sharp pain is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong/unsafe with how you’re trying to stretch. Stretching is not a “no pain, no gain” sport - you should never push through pain. Pushing yourself through pain can injure your muscles, ligaments, and even nerves (ouch!) which can take months to heal.
It can be helpful to remember everybody’s body is built differently - one stretch that might be great for one student’s hip bone structure may not be great for your special snowflake hip bone structure. So if any stretch gives you pain, listen to your body and back off.
Mistake #7: Not Realizing “Progress” Comes in Many Forms!
Not all flexibility gains are things you can see in a progress picture. Oftentimes progress, especially with beginners, comes in the form of comfort. Here are some various examples of noticeable progress you could expect to see with about a month of training:
Being able to go deeper into the stretch
Being able to hold the stretch for longer
Being slightly more comfortable in the stretch
Being able to get to your end range of motion (deepest stretch position) more easily / faster
Not being as sore the next day
Being stronger while your muscles are at their end range length
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help!
If you’re following the commonly accepted stretching best practices but still feel like you’re struggling to make progress, it may be worthwhile to talk to a pro. There are a whole bunch of flexibility coaches who offer in-person and online privates who can help assess your current range of motion and put together a tailored training plan to help work towards your goals. I offer private lessons (both 30 min and 60 min) to create flexibility training plans for a whole bunch of students, but there are a ton of other wonderful instructors out there who do as well! Do a quick google search and see if there’s anyone instructing in your area, or if you are looking for flexibility help for a specific discipline hobby (ex. martial arts), you can try and search for a coach that has a track record of working with students in your sport and understands the movement mechanics required (but really any flexibility coach with a solid understanding of anatomy should be able to help!).
