Stretching is like backing up your PC: You know you should do it, but it's easy to blow off. Besides, you never really learned how. Stretch before you workout? After? Are a couple of toe touches enough? If you're anything like us, you're so confused you may not bother stretching at all.

But that kind of play-and-pray strategy is risky. Unlike your computer, your body doesn't auto-save. You risk losing your range of motion and stability if you skip out on stretching. So we asked experts to analyse the research and give us the real deal.

What We Learned:
There are three key kinds of stretching. Combine them strategically (yet simply) and you'll prepare your muscles to expand and contract quickly so you can finesse your way around the field, up your flexibility, and promote healing between workouts.

The Three Types of Stretches

Dynamic
Moving your arms and legs through a range of motion without stopping to hold any single position.

Static
Stretching a muscle as far as you can without pain and then holding it there.

Myofascial
Applying pressure to different muscles by sliding parts of your body over a foam roller.

When should you do these stretches?
Dynamic Before you workout and right after a light cardio warm-up.
Static After your workout.
Myofascial Anytime

What’s in it for me?
Dynamic So you won't drag through the first few minutes of your workout. It’s link prepping your body what’s coming next. Essentially, you're training your muscles – which have memory – to stretch and contract through a specific type of motion.
Static To increase flexibility. When you stretch a muscle, sensory receptors pick up the info and send it to the central nervous system, which signals the muscles to contract. If you hold steady, the muscle relaxes to protect itself.
Myofascial Less overall tension. You're actually hitting the fascia, the membranes that surround muscles. Translation: You're bulldozing knots so the muscles can contract without grinding against each other.

Extra Intel
Dynamic Keep the motion smooth and controlled.
Static Hold each stretch for 15 to 30 seconds.
Myofascial Press as much of your body weight as possible into the foam roller. It will hurt, but you'll thank us later.

Click here for the stretch routine.