Be More Flexible
Spend twice as much time stretching your tight muscles as your flexible muscles. Focus on problem areas instead of muscles that are already flexible. Typical problem areas are the chest, hamstrings, shoulders and lower back.
Loosen Your Hips
Keep your heels on the floor when you squat. If you can’t, your hip flexors are too tight. Try this stretch: Hold onto the sides of the squat rack and lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Hold for 30 seconds. Return to a standing position, then repeat five times.
Stretch for Strength
Between sets, take 20 to 30 seconds to stretch the muscle you just worked. Boston researchers found that men who did this increased their strength by 20 percent.
Do Dynamic Stretches Before a Run
You should only do dynamic stretches before a run as dynamic stretches promote blood flow to the muscle making it feel “looser”, they increase flexibility to more than one muscle group at a time and are more comfortable to do. Doing static stretches before a run (or warm up) increases the likelihood of injuries occurring in the muscles stretched and decreases your performance.