What is the appropriate amount of time to hold a stretch in yoga? Is it two seconds, three seconds, 15 seconds, one minute, three minutes, an hour, or four hours? What’s the right answer? Is there too long or too short? We’re going to talk about it in this video.
The Common Misconception
I recently posted this question on my YouTube community, and I was surprised that the answers I got showed a huge majority of people believe that 30 seconds is the magic number, and that’s how long you should hold your stretch. A bunch of people actually said that 30 seconds is the absolute maximum because if you go beyond that, you’re gonna damage your body.
The Physical Feeble Fallacy
I read one comment that said if you held it too long, your muscle cells would die, and another person said if you did it too long, you would end up with something called tissue creep, where all kinds of things just get wrong and start compensating. I’m pointing these things out not because I want to make fun of these people, but because these people are being fed wrong information by people who don’t understand how to get more flexible.
Understanding the Human Body
Whenever you’re thinking about the human body and how to deal with muscles, you have to remember that the physical feeble fallacy is always a risk. Doctors, physical therapists, even trainers who are inflexible themselves are going to default to telling you things that make them feel better about their own feebleness.
A 45-year-old board-certified general practitioner who can barely touch his toes or do a basic hip flexor stretch doesn’t know how to get more flexible and is invested mentally and emotionally in the idea that you just shouldn’t stretch because if you should, he should, but he doesn’t really have the time or the motivation.
What People Who Are Already Flexible Do
If you actually want to get more flexible and get muscles to learn how to go into new positions, then you have to figure out what people who are already flexible have done to get there. When you do that, you also want to filter out all those people who are just really naturally flexible.
There are some people who are just born with the genetics that keep their muscles really loose, and they can just go into any position that they want to go into. But there are people who have had to work for it, who were really stiff and over time developed the flexibility that they were looking for. And those people are the ones you got to listen to.
The Importance of Progressive Training
The people who do regular training regimens to maintain their mobility are the people you want to look to. Hockey goalies, gymnasts – those are great examples of athletes who have to do maintenance work to maintain their mobility. What you’ll find in people who are extremely flexible and mobile is that they will hold stretches for longer than five seconds. Look,
I know there are some experts out there who say two seconds is the magic number, four seconds is the magic number, and I have personally had doctors and physical therapists tell me 15 seconds is the magic number. But the reality is, how long you hold a stretch depends on a couple of different factors.
Factors That Affect How Long You Hold a Stretch
First of all, what is your set point? Are you somebody who’s super flexible already? Then you probably don’t even need to be stretching. What are you doing if you’re super flexible? You might get away with a two-second stretch because all you’re doing is reminding your body and your muscles how easy it is to get to this position.
But if you’re somebody who’s really stiff and inflexible, you are going to need to hold it for longer. You’re probably going to need to hold it for longer than 30 seconds. You’re probably going to need to hold your stretches for a minute, two minutes, three minutes, with some caveats, which I’m going to talk about in a second. Number two is how your body actually feels and reacts to stretching.
Listening to Your Body
So if you’re going into say a chest stretch and it feels super duper intense and horrible and it feels like you’re gonna rip something apart, you probably want to number one reduce the intensity, and then number two take some breaths and hang out there, so your body has time to acclimate to what’s going on. Now if you go into the stretch and it just feels like yeah, that’s a good challenge,
that’s okay, you can hang out there longer. You can hang out there for 30 seconds, you can hang out there for 60 seconds. Sometimes I will hold my stretches for a whole two minutes. Sometimes, especially with my hamstrings or my groin muscles, I’ll hold my stretches for three or four minutes. And just to be clear, doing
Listening to Your Body
And just to be clear, doing that has never damaged my body or damaged my muscles. It has made things feel really intense at times and made me get out of those positions very gingerly and carefully, but it’s never done permanent damage to my body.
To hold a stretch for a couple of minutes, all that said, if you’re a beginner, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that you start holding stretches for three or five or ten minutes. That’s something you can do only as you get used to understanding your body’s responses and sensations to stretching.
Progressive Stretching
For beginners, a minute is a great starting point. 30 seconds if that feels like all you can tolerate, but going a little bit longer and challenging muscles to get used to new positions is literally how you get more flexible. How long you hold a stretch also depends
on how much you’ve been stretching recently. You don’t train for a marathon by running 26 miles every single day. Likewise, when you’re stretching to get more flexible, you’re not trying to go to your full range of motion at full intensity for 10 minutes every single day.
Periodization of Stretching
Maybe some days you’re doing a stretch for 30 seconds. Maybe one day a week, you’re doing a much more intense, longer stretch for a longer period of time. Maybe it’s two minutes. Maybe you do that twice a week, and on other days of the week, you just do some lighter, easier stretching for shorter periods of time. Or maybe you’re doing lighter, less intense stretching for longer periods of time. It just depends on how you feel and how your body reacts.
Individual Variability
Some people’s bodies respond well to really intense positioning. Mentioning some people, I’d say most people’s don’t. A big thanks to CM Ginger Annette and Forever Cards for your donations via PayPal. If you want to support this channel too, use the PayPal or Patreon links you’ll find in the description box or use the join and thanks buttons you’ll find on YouTube.
Three Don’ts of Stretching
Now, I want to talk about three don’ts about stretching. First, don’t listen to anyone who says there’s one magic number that you should always aim for, because any other number is just plain wrong, will kill you. That person is either caught up in the physically feeble fallacy or is trying to sell you something.
Don’t Rely on Static Stretching Alone
Number two is, don’t think that static stretching alone is going to fix all your flexibility issues. You want to learn how to build strength at every length in your muscles. That’s going to require loading, that’s going to require contracting muscles, that helps you understand the connection between your brain and your muscles, and building strength in those muscles so that your brain and your body feels safe in these lengthened positions.
Don’t Overstretch
And the number three thing you should not do is, don’t overstretch. If you’re someone who’s already really flexible, but you feel tight all the time, you have to know that the sensation of tightness can also be a result of having weak, over-stretched, overly flexible muscles. What is Hospital Indemnity Insurance? If you’re somebody who can do the splits easily,
and you can put your arms behind your back and reach all the way to India, then the reason your muscles might be feeling tight is not because you need to keep stretching them, you may actually need to strengthen them, build strength at every length, so those muscles feel like they control your body well. You can contact us here.
Conclusion
Many people get into yoga and think, “Oh, if I just keep relaxing and lengthening my body’s going to feel better.” But there’s a certain point where you’ve lengthened and lengthened and lengthened, you don’t have the strength to feel good and stable, and your body tells you that by saying, “This is tight.” I’m going to drop a link to an article about that in the description box, so be sure to check that out.
Final Thoughts
So, if you’re trying to get more flexible, remember that short stretches usually are not going to do anything. It doesn’t give you enough time for your brain and your muscles to learn how to get used to a new lengthened position. I strongly suggest at least 30 seconds, if not more, and adjust based on what your body feels like it can handle today.
That’s going to be in the context of your whole life, in terms of your genetic makeup, in terms of how flexible you have always been, and also in the context of the last week, in terms of how much stretching you’ve been doing, how intensely you’ve been doing it, and just trying to keep yourself in a nice middle ground. Some days you can go a little harder, some days a little lower, a little harder, higher, lower, up, down
Some days you can go a little harder, some days a little lower, a little harder, higher, lower, up, down, all around, and know that holding it for two minutes is not going to kill you, and in fact, for many people, is kind of the bare minimum.
I know that when I’ve felt really stiff and inflexible in certain parts of my body, after a lot of surfing or biking, I have to hold my stretches for at least a minute for my muscles to do anything that’s of any use to my comfort level. If all I do is a five-second stretch after I’ve been doing three hours of surfing, it’s basically not going to do anything. Who is a west coast in general hospital.
Call to Action
So now I want to hear what you’re going to be doing with your stretching, and how long you intend to hold your stretches. Drop me a comment down below, and for more videos to help you do basic human things like touching your toes, check out these videos here. Support this channel by using the Patreon and PayPal links you’ll find in the description box, or use the join and thanks buttons you’ll find on YouTube. Like, share, and subscribe, and as always, I hope you remember that pain sucks, life should not.
