Flexibility training should be done at least several times a week

Healthy ordinary people must maintain basic flexibility and improve joint mobility by at least ensuring regular training 2-3 times a week. People with special needs or rehabilitation needs can make adjustments on this basis.

This standard is not just a slap in the face. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has clearly mentioned in the 2021 version of the Exercise Testing and Prescription Guidelines that ordinary healthy people can maintain normal joint mobility by completing flexibility training covering the main muscle groups of the whole body 2-3 times a week. Each training session requires 2-4 sets of static stretching for each muscle group, and each set needs to maintain a sense of soreness for 10-30 seconds. The total duration only adds up to 10 minutes, which is a very low threshold.

When I first had no idea about this frequency, I encountered many pitfalls. In the beginning, I only liked to lift weights when working out. I felt that stretching was a waste of time. I would stretch my hamstrings after doing leg exercises at most once a week. As a result, my waist became as hard as a stone slab after sitting for a long time. My hip flexors got stuck halfway through squatting with a heavy weight, and I couldn’t even touch my ankles when I bent over to touch the ground. Later, I forced myself to spend 5 minutes stretching the muscles used that day after every training session. It worked out to about 3 times a week. I persisted for two months. Not only did my hips feel much smoother when I squatted with weights, but I was no longer so sore that I couldn't walk downstairs the next day after climbing a mountain on the weekend.

If you talk to people in different sports, you will find that this standard of 2-3 times is actually just a baseline for ordinary people. The differences between different sports are so big that you will be surprised. Several powerlifters I know only train flexibility once a week, and only stretch the hip flexors and rotator cuffs, leaving the rest of the body largely untouched - they feel that over-improving flexibility will reduce the support of the muscles. If the shoulders are too loose during the bench press, they will easily get injured. As long as they can meet the minimum range of motion requirements. But friends who practice Ashtanga yoga have a completely different set of logic. They basically do flexibility training every day, sometimes doing morning and evening classes. After all, they have to complete various difficult postures. Flexibility is the foundation of the basics. For them, they can’t even touch the entry level three times a week. There are also people in the recovery period who are even more special. I went for rehabilitation for lumbar protrusion, and the physical therapist directly asked me to do 10 minutes of waist and hamstring stretching every morning and evening to relax the adhering muscles and make room for the nerves. At this time, the frequency must follow the rhythm of rehabilitation, and ordinary standards cannot be applied rigidly.

But it doesn’t mean that the more you practice, the better. There are counterexamples around me. I had a friend who ran a marathon before. In order to improve his stride, he stretched his legs every day, stretching each part for a full minute each time. As a result, the race was 20 minutes slower than usual, and his legs were too weak to exert force. Later, he asked the coach and found out that high-frequency and long-term static stretching will temporarily reduce the explosive power and contraction efficiency of the muscles, which has a negative impact on endurance events that require explosive power. If he reduced the frequency to three times a week, the effect would be better.

For most office workers who sit for more than 8 hours a day, there is really no need to force themselves to do it every day. Many people around me got yoga cards and went every day, but got tired of it and gave up within two months. Instead, it is better to do it 2-3 nights a week. When the body is hot after taking a bath, practice it in front of a short stretching video of about 10 minutes. After stretching the shoulders, neck, waist, and hips, which are the hardest hit areas for long periods of sitting, the whole person will be much more relaxed and easier to persist. If you have special needs such as dancing or gymnastics, then just follow the requirements of the project. As long as you combine it with strength training, don't just focus on flexibility without muscle training, otherwise the joints will not be stable and it will be easy to strain.

My current rhythm is even lazier. After each strength training session, I just stretch the areas I trained that day for 5 minutes. I do chest exercises to pull the chest and shoulders, and leg exercises to pull the hamstrings and hips. I don’t have to spare any extra time, so I do it 3-4 times a week. This not only maintains my flexibility, but also doesn’t delay the weight gain from lifting, and I won’t feel sore or uncomfortable after the exercise. It’s just right.

To put it bluntly, there is really no standard answer to the frequency. Ordinary people will not go wrong if they follow the baseline of 2-3 times a week. If you have special needs, you can adjust accordingly. The frequency that is most suitable for you is the frequency that is comfortable after practice, does not affect normal exercise and life, and can achieve the results you want.