The Tea on Dynamic Stretching

Growing up as a dancer, I remember walking into the studio, laying on my back and letting my legs plop into a split everyday as my “warm-up.” Sometimes I’d change it up with some sleepy frog stretch or laying in a middle split forward fold, but it was always some passive stretching, static stretch. This was encouraged by my teachers and honestly, I encouraged it when I started teaching too.

Exercise science has come a long way in recent years and studies have consistently proven to us that popping into a split cold and aggressive over-stretching isn’t giving us the hyper-flexible results we hoped for. We now know that static stretching cold muscles is doing more harm then good and if we want to increase flexibility, we’ve got to incorporate dynamic stretching into our workouts (and if we want functional flexibility, we need to prioritize building strength too but that’s a topic for another time.)

Dynamic stretching has become such a buzzword in the fitness and dance space over the last few years, but what is dynamic stretching exactly? What stretches qualify as dynamic vs static?

Well, for my yogis out there, you can look at dynamic stretching as Vinyassa style movements where everything keeps moving and flowing, while static stretching is Hatha or Yin style where you focus on holding each posture.

Basically, a dynamic stretch requires you to keep moving and static stretches are stretches with little to no movement.

Plopping down into a middle split, laying down in a sleepy frog or butterfly, sitting down and touching your toes - these are all static stretches. Swinging your legs or doing sun salutations for example, are dynamic stretches.

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When to Use Dynamic Stretching

Dynamic stretching, stretches that continuously move and flow, are ideal for a warm-up. You don’t want to plop into a stretch cold and then try and exercise - this begs for injury.

Your warm-up should be designed to achieve 3 main goals:

1. To raise your heart rate in order to warm the body

2. To loosen your muscles slowly so they are ready to be stretched.

3. To slowly begin to engage your muscles so that they are ready to do the work they need to do.

Static stretches achieve none of these because the common theme here is slowly warming the body by increasing the heart rate. There is nothing slow about popping into a full split and sitting on the ground without moving surely won’t raise your heart rate.

When to Use Static Stretching

Now, I want to acknowledge that static stretches aren’t inherently bad or dangerous, even if they do get a bad rap. Static stretching can be a great way to increase flexibility and to relax your body, the key is using them at the right moment - towards the end of a workout when your body is feeling really warm and loose.

The Takeaway

Dynamic stretching is the move if you want to effectively warm-up your body and prevent injury.

If static stretching feels good, or if you are trying to find deeper stretches go for it! Just be sure to get really warmed up first.

📹Want some dynamic stretching inspo? Follow me on Instagram for lots of stretch and strength ideas for you next workout!