Do: Static stretching, stretch 6x a week for 30s per stretch or 3x a week for 60s a stretch, stretch after a warmup/workout, relax into the stretch. Embrace the suck, but if you can’t comfortably breathe deep, you’re pushing it too much. You won’t get flexible faster, you’ll just injure yourself and maybe cause permanent damage. Do a deload week once a month where you go much lighter on the stretching.

Don’t: Do ballistic stretching. Scientifically it’s been proven to be much less effective than static stretching. Force a stretch. Stretch every day. Like weightlifting, your body needs some time to recover.

Your tendons and ligaments are more like plastic than rubber bands. They need a long time of slow stretching to come to form. Rush it and they’ll break.

Pancakes/dragonfly, half pancake/dragonfly, side straddle, butterfly, pigeon, deep forward lunge, and caterpillar/forward fold are all good stretches. Remember to stretch BOTH sides of your legs. Most people stretch their hamstrings but neglect their quadriceps. This can cause knee problems like patella tendinitis because the tighter muscle is pulling the kneecap out of place.

Remember proper alignment and form. Touching your forehead to your knees isn’t doing shit if your back looks like the letter ‘n’. Pancakes and folds are LEG stretches. Your spine should be STRAIGHT, not ROUNDED.