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[Madmax_01]

Hey guys,

I am now gaining some muscle mass on my legs. Do you guys think that directly stretching after your work-out is good? Would you recommend that?
Unfortunately, I am not THE top expert on work out and gym issues. 

[Deads]

Hey guys,

I am now gaining some muscle mass on my legs. Do you guys think that directly stretching after your work-out is good? Would you recommend that?
Unfortunately, I am not THE top expert on work out and gym issues. 

Stretch before and after your work-out.. Stretching afterward isn't really necessary, but if you are deliberately preparing for LL, then stretching after your workout will allow you to stretch after you're warmed up (which is good because you'll be able to stretch further when you're warmed up).

I used to do gymnastics as a teen and when new people would want to give it a go, we reccomended stretching 3x a day for at least half an hour (which is nothing really). A proper full stretch routein on your legs should last an hour, but anything is better than nothing... So I would say stretch before and after your workout, (counts as one stretch) first thing in the morning when you wake up (you'll find you are the least flexible in the morning) and before you go to bed.

[Madmax_01]

Stretch before and after your work-out.. Stretching afterward isn't really necessary, but if you are deliberately preparing for LL, then stretching after your workout will allow you to stretch after you're warmed up (which is good because you'll be able to stretch further when you're warmed up).

I used to do gymnastics as a teen and when new people would want to give it a go, we reccomended stretching 3x a day for at least half an hour (which is nothing really). A proper full stretch routein on your legs should last an hour, but anything is better than nothing... So I would say stretch before and after your workout, (counts as one stretch) first thing in the morning when you wake up (you'll find you are the least flexible in the morning) and before you go to bed.

My routine in the last 2 weeks was to stretch in the evening for about 20-25 min. Before doing my stretching exercises, I always were stretching. 1-2 days in the week I paused. I was especially focusing on the hamstring stretches, and doing a few extra stretches from this website: http://exercise.about.com/od/flexibilityworkouts/tp/12-Great-Stretches-for-the-Lower-Body-Maximize-Your-Flexibility.htm. f.e. touching toes, pike stretch, etc.
In total I would say about 6-7 stretching exercises.

After reading your reply I probably think that my routine is not enough.
(-> Wow, one hour stretching, three times a day. One hour seems for me like a very long time.
Should I do many sets of stretching exercises or many different stretching exercises? Could you elaborate on that a little bit ...

Referring to your detailed feedback would you also recommend doing „cold“ stretches (without warm-up.) I myself always thought that doing cold stretches are not very healthy for muscles, tendons, ligaments etc. ?

Would you have any good suggestions for a work out routine (specific stretching exercises?) 

I probably have 85-90 ° on the SLR. But I would like to raise it to 120 °. Is that a realistic goal in 5 months? 

All the best

[Deads]

My routine in the last 2 weeks was to stretch in the evening for about 20-25 min. Before doing my stretching exercises, I always were stretching. 1-2 days in the week I paused. I was especially focusing on the hamstring stretches, and doing a few extra stretches from this website: http://exercise.about.com/od/flexibilityworkouts/tp/12-Great-Stretches-for-the-Lower-Body-Maximize-Your-Flexibility.htm. f.e. touching toes, pike stretch, etc.
In total I would say about 6-7 stretching exercises.

After reading your reply I probably think that my routine is not enough.
(-> Wow, one hour stretching, three times a day. One hour seems for me like a very long time.
Should I do many sets of stretching exercises or many different stretching exercises? Could you elaborate on that a little bit ...

Referring to your detailed feedback would you also recommend doing „cold“ stretches (without warm-up.) I myself always thought that doing cold stretches are not very healthy for muscles, tendons, ligaments etc. ?

Would you have any good suggestions for a work out routine (specific stretching exercises?) 

I probably have 85-90 ° on the SLR. But I would like to raise it to 120 °. Is that a realistic goal in 5 months? 

All the best

Some people like to do a short light jog before stretching, but traditionally, stretching is the warm-up to your warm up. Obviously you take it easy for your first few stretches and then when you're feeling like you're warmed up somewhat, then you begin to push yourself that bit harder.


In terms of the types of stretches and the sets etc, it depends entirely what you're stretching for. Gymnastics and LL requires you to be specifically limber and flexible for the best results.. People that are purely warming up for exercise stretch for 20-30 mins before their workout and that's it.. They generally don't have any phenomenal flexibility. If you're wanting to be exceptionally flexible then you have to think of it like a workout. You hold the stretch for several minutes at a time for many sets, for a variety of different stretches.. If you are truely focused on stretching yourself out then 30 minutes will wizz by before you have properly had a chance to really make an impact on your muscles and tendons.

As for the types of stretches, do some research. There's plenty to choose from, but have a goal to try and do the splits.. You probably won't get that far, but the sort of stretches required to accomplish the splits would be akin to the sort of stretching you would want to be doing for LL.