The dose
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends flexibility work on two or more days a week, holding a static stretch 10 to 30 seconds, 2 to 4 repetitions per muscle group, to the point of tightness rather than pain — roughly 60 seconds of total time per muscle.
Order matters
Long static stretching immediately before heavy lifting or sprinting can briefly reduce force and power output. That is why the standard warm-up is now dynamic — leg swings, bodyweight squats, light sets of the actual lift — with the long static holds saved for after the session or a separate day.
The myth worth dropping
Reviews of the evidence, including Cochrane analyses, find that stretching before or after exercise produces little to no reduction in injury risk or next-day muscle soreness. What does track with fewer injuries is a proper warm-up, adequate strength, and sane progression of load.
So why bother?
- Range of motion you can actually use lets you squat, press and hinge in better positions.
- Hips, ankles, thoracic spine and shoulders are where most desk-job restriction shows up.
- Five minutes of mobility work at the start of a session is a genuinely good use of time.
Mobility work belongs inside the program, not instead of it.
If you want this handled for you instead of figured out alone, Billy's 90-Day Program is the version of all of this built around your body, your schedule and your starting point.
See the 90-Day ProgramCompletely optional. Everything above is yours either way.
- American College of Sports Medicine — Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription; Position Stand on Quantity and Quality of Exercise
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — Herbert et al., stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness
- National Strength and Conditioning Association — warm-up and flexibility recommendations
Figures reflect the published guidance from these bodies at the time of writing. Guidelines are updated periodically — check the source for the current version.