Start by lying on your back with your right foot on the ground, knee bent. Bring the left ankle to the top of your right knee and, using your hands, lift your right leg off the ground. Reach for your hamstring or shin as you bring your right leg closer to your chest. Repeat on the other side. If you can’t reach your hamstring with your hands, that’s a sign you have tightness in your hips.
How can you become more flexible?
If any of these tests revealed a lack of flexibility, a good place to start is by turning that movement into a regular stretch. For example, if you weren’t able to get your arm to the floor in the open book stretch, perform the stretch until you feel resistance. Then spend about 30 seconds slowly and carefully moving your arm a little bit closer to the floor.
“Eventually you’ll find the point at which the discomfort gets farther and farther into the range of motion,” Mr. Van Zandt said.
Stretching doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Mr. Van Zandt said five to 10 minutes per week per muscle group is optimal for most people. This can be a single five-minute stretch or a few sets of 30-second stretches three to four days a week. Avoid stretching cold muscles by stretching after a workout, or warm up your muscles for five to ten minutes beforehand.
If you enjoy lifting weights and dislike stretching, you can work on both at the same time by moving through the full range of motion in your workouts, like squatting with a barbell as low as your strength and flexibility allow to improve your calf and ankle flexibility.
“The way you train it is entirely up to you,” Mr. Van Zandt said. “You can lift weights, you can stretch, you can do a combination of both.” He added that combining tends to be the most effective.
Lindsay Renteria, a personal trainer and functional fitness coach, recommended the Sampson stretch for its efficiency. This stretch — a lunge forward with one leg, hands clasped overhead, alternating legs after 30 seconds — targets your quads, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors and even shoulders.
The most important thing to focus on while you’re stretching, said Ms. Renteria, is your breathing. While you stretch, take a deep breath in for two or three seconds, then out for two or three seconds. “Breathing helps reduce stress and relaxes your body so your muscles can go through a full range of motion.”
Hilary Achauer is a freelance writer focused on fitness, health, wellness and parenting.
