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How Long Should I Hold My Muscle Stretches?
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How Long Should I Hold My Muscle Stretches

Stretching is often performed as part of a warm up prior to physical activity and can be defined as the application of tensile force to lengthen muscle and connective tissue (Stone, Kinser, O'Bryant, O'Bryant, Ayers, & William, 2006). The primary reason for stretching before physical activity is to reduce the risk of injury. Stretching helps this as it lengthens the muscles and tendons, therefore increasing range of movement. (Manoel, Harris-Love, Danoff, & Miller, 2008).
There are three main types of stretches they are as follows: Static, Dynamic and lastly Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Static stretching involves stretching a muscle group slowly to the point of tension or minor discomfort for 15 to 30 seconds, and should be performed 2-4 times (Manoel, Harris-Love, Danoff, & Miller, 2008). Dynamic stretching is performed using a controlled bounce or swinging motion to progress a body part to the threshold of its range of movement (ROM). The swinging motion and bounce should always remain controlled throughout the movement and should be gradually increased thus increasing ROM, this should be performed for10 minutes (Kravitz, 2009). The PNF stretch usually requires two people. The target limb is moved through its range of motion passively by a training partner after attaining the final point of the range of motion, the muscle is contracted isometrically against the partner for 3-15 seconds with a contraction force of 20%-70% of the target muscle (Manoel, Harris-Love, Danoff, & Miller, 2008).
Traditionally static stretches were thought to be the best type of stretches prior to working out,