Do you need to do flexibility training every day?

There is never a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Whether you should practice every day depends entirely on your training goals, current flexibility level, and physical tolerance. There is neither a mandatory "must clock in every day" nor an absolute statement that "practicing every day will hurt your body."

Two years ago, I met a little girl who was preparing for the folk dance exam. At that time, the opening of her hind legs was still 30 degrees short of the assessment line of the target school. The plan given by her basic training teacher was to spend 20 minutes each morning doing static stretching + PNF stretching, so that the soreness and swelling were controlled every time. There was no tingling intensity, and the teacher was watching to adjust the strength throughout the whole process. After practicing every day for more than two months, the opening of her hind legs reached 180 degrees steadily, and there was no strain problem during the whole process. For her goals at this stage, the benefits of practicing every day indeed far outweigh the risks.

But if you change the situation, it is completely different. I have a friend who is doing back-end development. He usually sits for 10 hours at first, and his waist is as stiff as an old slate. In the past two years, I heard others say that flexibility training needs to be done every day to improve. When I got home from get off work, I would press my legs against the wall to do the splits. Every time, I gritted my teeth until I cried in pain. Within a week, my hamstring muscles became swollen and I walked with a limp. Later, he changed to training three times a week. After each training of hip and leg strength, he spent 10 minutes slowly stretching the hip flexors, chest muscles and latissimus dorsi. He did not need to pursue the extreme range, but stopped when he felt a stretch. Now his waist does not feel tight even after sitting for five or six hours, and the range of motion of the deadlift is much wider than before.

In fact, the sports circles have different tendencies on this issue. Practitioners in the fields of rehabilitation, dance, and yoga mostly support low-intensity and high-frequency stretching. After all, the extensibility of fascia and muscles requires continuous gentle stimulation to maintain. Especially for people with postural problems such as rounded shoulders and forward head extension, stretching the tight chest muscles and upper trapezius muscles for 5 minutes a day will accumulate improvement effects that are much better than pulling twice a week for two hours. However, most coaches who practice strength and explosive strength projects do not recommend doing static flexibility training every day. After all, muscle elasticity and tension complement each other. If the muscles are stretched too loose every day, it will weaken the explosive force. Many weightlifters and sprinters usually only do dynamic stretching to activate and relax before and after training. At most, they can arrange 1-2 dedicated static flexibility training times a week, which is enough to maintain the range of motion.

To put it bluntly, flexibility training is like loosening a rubber glove that has been hardened by the sun. If you gently rub it twice a day and pull it twice, it will always remain soft and elastic. If you have nothing to do, just pull it hard, and it will either be so loose that you can't use any force, or it will be ripped directly. If you are not sure what frequency is suitable for you, you can try it for a week: pull with low intensity for 10 to 15 minutes every day. After the exercise, your whole body will be relaxed, and you will not have any muscle soreness or lack of strength in running and jumping the next day. There is no problem if you train every day. ； If your muscles feel heavy the next day after training and you always feel that you can't exert your strength when exerting force, it means that the frequency is too high, and reducing it to three or four times a week is enough.