Cressey’s Take: Static Stretching

Written on July 5, 2007 at 1:20 pm, by Eric Cressey

Q: What’s your take on frequency of static stretching? Is it “the more, the better”? More or less, how many days per week would be a good idea?

A: In a nutshell…

1) I’m not as huge an advocate of stretching as I used to be, but I still think people need to do it – especially those who sit at computers all day.

2) Activation work and dynamic flexibility drills are ten times as valuable as static stretching. I’d rather do 6-8 mobilizations than a 12-15 second static stretch.

3) More people need to pay attention to soft-tissue work. Many times, muscles will just feel tight because they’re so knotted up. It’s not just about soft tissue length anymore; it’s about quality, too. You can check out my article The Joint Health Checklist for details.

4) My clients do 2-3 static stretches pre-training at the very most (only chronically overactive muscles), and the rest are at other times of the day. We’ll include some static stretching of non-working musculature during training in between sets just to improve training economy.

5) Stretching daily has helped a lot of my clients improve faster, but I think that they’ve come along almost just as well with pure activation and mobilization work (we do both).

Eric Cressey

Step-By-Step What It Takes to Become a Superior Athlete

2 Responses to “Cressey’s Take: Static Stretching”

1. Anonymous Says:
   July 9th, 2007 at 2:58 am

   Hey Cressey
   like what you have to say about active ROM drills and dynamic stretches.

   If you have never checked out stretch to win you should, techniques can really help increase mobility, this along with trigger Point release rollers have helped most of my clients. Then adding in activation adn moblization work takes them all the way.

   in health PAUL TURNER BHKIN.RK
   vancouver canada.

2. Teemu Says:
   July 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 pm

   The Joint Health Checklist article can be found here: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1109501