Isn't everything mostly hype? After you have a certain minimal level of strength and cardio capacity, how much do those actually affect your life?

From the article: "Although it can boost flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven."

The thing I had to learn the hard way was the value of flexibility. You can pump out squats and go for a jog, but if your knees and ankles hurt when you go down stairs, you have a problem. If you can't sit on the ground with your back straight, you have a flexibility problem. A lot of lower back pain comes from flexibility issues.

What is the value of flexibility? Go visit a nursing home and see people who can barely move. Part of that is lack of strength, part is lack of cardio, and part is lack of flexibility.

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Also, you should beware of lessons learned the hard way. A lot of times they are another way expressing a pain point, sometimes with a solution that worked - but that solution may not be optimal.

Tell that to gymnasts and martial artists. I have seen the "science" of this over the years, but I have also seen the practical fact that it's absolutely unavoidable.

Gymnasts, martial artists, ballet dancers and some athlets (e.g. javelin throwers) stretch to increase their range of motion because the latter is beneficial for their activities. The effect is temporary (+) unless you start at a young age and ruin your joints (-> China). If you don't belong to those groups, stretching doesn't do much for you, as has been repeatedly pointed out in various publications. The other benefits attributed to stretching, e.g. a lower risk for injuries, are actually caused by the warming-up effect of the stretching movements and can be also achieved, in a much safer way!, by some simple exercises.

(Side note: When talking about the benefits of stretching, some people also mention Yoga, but that's a different story and 99.999% of Yoga teachers and practitioner don't have the slightest idea what they are doing.)

(+) That's the reason why you have the impression that you are stiff when you skip stretching for one or two days.

Try squatting deep without being flexible. Squatting --> strength --> better posture, metabolism, & bone density.

That article seems to aim at the hype that stretching will help with anything other than stretching. It's pretty obvious to anyone who ever tried that practice helps you stretch farther, but some people also stretch because they believe it will prevent injury or make their muscles more efficient or something like that.

I stretch because it feels good. I don’t expect a cure from cancer for it, though.