Stretching guidelines

Warm up before your stretch. Stretching muscles when they’re cold increases your risk of injury.

Use dynamic stretches in your warm up and static stretches in your cool down.

Stretch all your major muscles including calf, thigh, hip, lower back, neck and shoulders.

Stretch slowly with control and as far as possible without causing pain

Don’t hold your breath while you’re stretching – relax and breathe normally.

Don’t forget to stretch all the same muscles at the end of your cool down.

Dynamic stretching

This kind of stretching helps to warm your muscles up by increasing your heart rate and body temperature more than static stretches. Because dynamic stretching copies the movement that will be done during your activity, they are ideal to use if you are warming up before playing sport. It should take you about five minutes to complete all the stretches.

Watch the Kickstart dynamic stretch video

Download the Kickstart dynamic stretch guide - coming soon

Static stretching

Make an extra effort to fit static stretches into your cool down routine, as this will help you to recover and will help reduce any soreness the next day.

This type of stretching involves slow, gradual and controlled movements. Try to hold each stretch for 20 to 30 seconds and don’t bounce whilst you are stretching. You should be able to feel the muscle stretching but not be in any pain. Release the stretch if you feel any discomfort and try the stretch again but do not stretch so far. It should take you about 10 minutes to complete all the stretches.

Watch the Kickstart static stretch video

Download the Kickstart static stretch guide - coming soon