Muscle flexibility is important for your body. But according to sports medicine experts at Mayo Clinic, the old way of stretching before you exercise isn’t the right approach.
“Having flexible muscles and mobile joints can help reduce your overall injury risk. But it can also help improve your performance,” says Dr. Chad Asplund, a Mayo Clinic sports medicine physician.
Stretching those muscles is a good way to increase flexibility, but there’s a common mistake many people make.
“The old stretching before you work out has actually been shown to increase the rate of injuries,” says Asplund. “And paradoxically, regular stretching done when the muscles are warm, such as after you work out, over the long term will make your muscles more flexible and lower your injury risk.”