Online Flexibility Training from Toe Touches to Head Sits

Do you really need to warm up before stretching? Isn’t stretching usually a “warm up” for other workouts?

This really depends on the type of training you plan on working on. The goal of “warming up” is to prepare your body - your muscles, your joints, your cardiovascular and nervous systems, etc. - for your upcoming workout. For some hobbies, like martial arts or pole dancing, that often means including stretches as part of the warm up to be able to use that flexibility in their skill work.

But what about for flexibility training as a “work out?” This is where it really depends on the intensity of the stretching you’ll be doing.

Do you ever feel like you make some good progress during a stretching session, only to have your flexibility revert back to it’s previous less-bendy state the next day? Or maybe you notice you’re able to stretch deeper after a heavy workout like weightlifting than trying to stretch randomly in the middle of the day? Do you have long-term goals to be able to touch your toes or drop into the splits without doing any kind of warm up? All of these are related to the difference between our warm vs. our cold flexibility.