4.10 Dynamic Stretching

Walk into any gym or training pitch and you'll see it: the sacred pre-session ritual of leg swings, walking lunges and arm circles, performed in the same order, every single time, before every kind of session.

Dynamic stretching earned its place — the science behind it is real. But somewhere between the research and your local pitch, the message got mangled into "do these twelve drills before everything forever".

Which is a shame. A warm-up built properly — structured, specific, finishing hot — is one of the cheapest performance upgrades going. Built on autopilot, it's fifteen minutes of well-intentioned admin.

First, the definition. Dynamic stretching means moving a joint actively through its range, repeatedly, without holding the end position. Swing, don't sit.

It took over from static stretching as the standard pre-session practice for a good reason: prolonged static holds produce a measurable acute drop in force and power output, while dynamic work doesn't — it generally produces a small improvement (Behm & Chaouachi, 2011). That much is well supported.

What followed was less careful. Dynamic stretching hardened into a fixed routine performed before every session, regardless of what the session actually required.

This article covers the mechanisms, the RAMP structure that organises a warm-up properly, how to pick drills for the session in front of you, and where the evidence is stronger — and weaker — than the popular summary suggests.

Key takeaways

1. Know what it is. Dynamic stretching moves a joint actively through range without holding the end position — so it raises temperature and range at the same time.
2. Know the static caveat. Prolonged static stretching acutely reduces force and power. Short holds have a much smaller effect, and dynamic work generally has none.
3. Know where the benefit comes from. Mostly from the temperature and activation effects of moving — not from the stretch itself.
4. Structure it with RAMP. Dynamic stretching occupies the mobilise stage of the warm-up, not the whole session.
5. Match drills to the session. Pick for the joints and ranges the coming session demands. A fixed routine before everything is a wasted opportunity.
6. Finish near session intensity. Most warm-ups stop far too early — this is the big one.

How leg swings conquered the world

For most of the twentieth century, the warm-up was a light jog followed by static stretches held for twenty or thirty seconds each. Schools taught it. Clubs taught it. Coaching qualifications taught it.

Everyone believed it reduced injury and improved performance. Nobody had really checked.

That combination — universal practice, zero verification — is exactly the kind of thing research eventually gets round to. And when it did, it started a quiet revolution.

From the late 1990s onwards, the checking finally arrived — and it kept finding the same uncomfortable result. Prolonged static stretching immediately before activity produced measurable reductions in force output, power, jump height and sprint speed (Kay & Blazevich, 2012).

Before you swear off static stretching forever, look at the fine print, because the effect has conditions.

It's most pronounced when total stretch time passes roughly sixty seconds per muscle group (Behm, 2016). It shrinks considerably with shorter holds. It's largest immediately after stretching and fades over the next twenty to thirty minutes. And it's generally smaller in trained athletes than in untrained participants.

In gym terms: a couple of brief holds early in a warm-up is a rounding error. A full old-school stretching routine right before jumping or sprinting is where the measurable cost lives — and even that is temporary.

So the sensible recommendation emerged: move the static work out of the pre-session slot and prepare with active movement instead. Sound advice.

The reasoning behind it, as it filtered down into gyms and group chats, got garbled — which is how we ended up with warm-up folklore instead of warm-up logic.

What's actually doing the work

The explanation you'll usually hear is that dynamic stretching "activates" your muscles while static stretching "relaxes" them. As a metaphor, it's serviceable. As a mechanism, it's not much of one.

The better account is that dynamic stretching does several things at once — and most of them have very little to do with stretching.

• It heats you up. Repeated movement raises muscle temperature, which reduces tissue viscosity, speeds nerve conduction and improves enzyme activity (Bishop, 2003). This is probably the largest single contributor to any performance benefit.
• It switches things on. Voluntary muscle activity increases subsequent motor unit recruitment for a period afterwards (McGowan, 2015). Dynamic work provides this; passive stretching doesn't.
• It finds range without long loading. You reach range by moving into it repeatedly rather than holding tension — which appears to sidestep whatever mechanism causes the acute force drop.
• It rehearses what's coming. The drills resemble the session's movements, so you're preparing coordination as well as tissue.

Put another way: the movement is the medicine. The stretch is mostly along for the ride.

Now notice what's missing from that list: any substantial contribution from the stretching itself.

Strip out the stretch component and simply have athletes move progressively for the same duration, and you'd capture most of the benefit. That's not a knock — it's the key to using the tool correctly.

It also explains why dynamic stretching is a poor tool for actually increasing your range of motion (Opplert & Babault, 2018). That's a separate goal, and it needs a different method.

RAMP: the structure your warm-up needs

Here's a plot twist: the most useful thing to come out of two decades of warm-up research isn't the static-versus-dynamic finding at all.

It's the recognition that a warm-up has several distinct jobs, and they need doing in order.

The RAMP framework, developed by Ian Jeffreys, organises those jobs (Jeffreys, 2007). Raise lifts temperature and blood flow. Activate recruits the muscles the session will need. Mobilise takes joints through the required ranges. Potentiate builds intensity towards the session's demands.

Spot where dynamic stretching lives: the mobilise stage. One stage out of four — not the whole show.

A warm-up made entirely of leg swings and lunges has skipped the temperature elevation that makes the mobilisation effective, and skipped the intensity build that readies you for the first hard effort. It's the filling without the sandwich.

Seen through RAMP, the old jog-and-stretch routine wasn't entirely wrong — it raised, then it mobilised, passively. It just stopped halfway, sending you into the session with no activation and no intensity build. The structure isn't new; it's finally complete.

The stages also scale sensibly by sport. An endurance athlete needs comparatively little — a progressive build from easy to session pace covers most of it. A sprinter needs the full staircase, because their first effort sits near the ceiling.

The most common warm-up error is not choosing the wrong stretch type. It is finishing the warm-up at forty per cent of session intensity and then asking the athlete to sprint or lift heavy. The potentiate stage exists precisely to close that gap.

Making it fit the session

Pick drills for today, not for tradition

The most wasteful thing about most dynamic warm-ups? They're identical no matter what follows. The same twelve drills before a heavy squat session, a sprint session and an easy aerobic run.

Your warm-up has a limited time budget. Spend it on the joints and ranges today's session will actually demand.

Think about what each session really asks for. A sprint session needs hip flexion and extension range at speed, ankle stiffness, and a genuine build-up to near-maximal velocity.

A heavy squat session needs ankle dorsiflexion and hip flexion with rotation, then ramping sets under the bar. An overhead pressing session needs thoracic extension and shoulder flexion — and almost nothing at the hip.

Do all of it every time and each element gets a token dose. You spend fifteen minutes and still arrive underprepared for the specific thing you're about to do. Busy, but not ready.

• Ask what positions the session requires and what intensity it starts at.
• Choose two or three mobilisation drills that hit those positions directly.
• Add an activation element for any muscle group the session leans on heavily.
• Build the potentiation stage from the session movement itself.
• Keep the whole thing under twenty minutes — longer warm-ups eat into the session.

A useful cue from the coaching floor: two drills done well beats twelve done briefly.

Worked example: it's squat day and depth is your struggle, so the mobilise budget goes on the squat's actual bottlenecks — ankles and hips — not on a dozen general-purpose drills. Playing team sport instead? A structured programme like FIFA 11+ makes the selection for you, with injury-reduction evidence attached.

The intensity gap nobody closes

Try this experiment. Watch any warm-up and note the peak intensity it reaches. In most cases it's around fifty to sixty per cent of what the session will demand.

Then the athlete runs their first hard sprint, or gets under their first heavy set, having never been anywhere near that intensity. That leap — from half-effort straight to full effort — is the gap.

It's the training equivalent of joining a motorway from a standstill. The slip road exists so you can match speed before you merge — that's your potentiation stage.

This gap is where a substantial share of preparation-related injuries happen. And it's entirely avoidable. Closing it costs a few minutes; leaving it open can cost considerably more.

The potentiation stage should build to something close to session intensity: one or two efforts at ninety per cent or above, followed by enough rest to recover before the session proper.

For a sprint session, that means build-up runs progressing to near-maximal — not a series of drills followed by a maximal effort from nothing. Sprinters and jumpers need this stage most of all, because their first competitive effort is maximal with no chance to ease in.

For heavy lifting, it means ramping sets with progressively fewer repetitions, finishing close to the working weight. For change-of-direction work, it means submaximal cuts and decelerations before maximal ones.

1. Establish the intensity the session starts at.
2. Work backwards from it in three or four steps.
3. Perform one or two efforts at ninety per cent or above.
4. Rest properly — the aim is potentiation, not fatigue.
5. Begin the session.

One-line recap: finish where the session starts.

What the evidence really says

Dynamic stretching acquired a reputation somewhat larger than its evidence base. Time to separate the two, tier by tier.

Well supported: dynamic activity before exercise raises muscle temperature and improves subsequent force and power output relative to prolonged static stretching (Fradkin et al., 2010). Structured multi-component warm-up programmes reduce injury rates in team sports — programmes like FIFA 11+ have reasonably strong supporting data (Soligard, 2008; Sadigursky, 2017). And prolonged static stretching immediately before power activities acutely impairs performance.

Moderately supported: that dynamic stretching specifically — as distinct from general dynamic activity — adds extra benefit (Opplert & Babault, 2018). That sport-specific drill selection outperforms generic routines. And the optimal duration and volume of the mobilise stage.

Poorly supported: that dynamic stretching prevents injury on its own, rather than as part of a structured multi-component programme. That it improves long-term flexibility — it does this relatively poorly compared with static or loaded methods. And the specific ordering of drills within the mobilise stage, which has attracted much confident assertion and little data.

Notice the pattern: the strongest claims are about moving and warming, not about stretching. The weakest are the ones printed on gym posters.

The practical upshot: if you're doing dynamic drills to feel ready and move well right now, the evidence is behind you. If you're doing them to bulletproof yourself against injury on their own, or to get flexible, you've picked the wrong tool for both jobs.

The injury reduction finding deserves emphasis because it is often misattributed. It comes from multi-component programmes including strength, balance and plyometric elements alongside mobilisation. The mobilisation component alone has not been shown to produce the effect.

Dynamic or ballistic? Where the line sits

Dynamic and ballistic stretching get conflated constantly, and the distinction is worth keeping sharp.

Dynamic stretching moves a joint through range under control, with the movement decelerating as it approaches end range. Ballistic stretching uses momentum to bounce past the point you can control — and the deceleration comes from your tissue rather than your muscles.

• Dynamic: controlled movement through range, decelerated actively. A leg swing where you control the top of the arc. Appropriate for warm-ups and generally safe.
• Ballistic: momentum carries the joint beyond controlled range, and tissue does the braking. Bouncing at the bottom of a toe touch. Higher risk, rarely necessary.
• The practical test: if you could stop the movement at any point, it's dynamic. If momentum is doing the work at end range, it's ballistic.

Ballistic work isn't universally harmful. It shows up in sport-specific contexts where the sport itself involves ballistic end-range movement — kicking disciplines, for instance, which need end-range hip work at speed.

But for a general warm-up? It offers no advantage over controlled dynamic work and carries more risk — particularly in cold tissue, or in athletes with a relevant injury history.

When static still belongs before training

"Never stretch statically before training" is an overcorrection, and it's worth saying so plainly. There are defensible exceptions.

If you genuinely can't reach a position the session requires, and that restriction stops you performing the session safely, a short static hold to buy temporary range is a reasonable trade.

Picture a lifter who can't reach the bottom of a squat without their heels lifting. A brief calf stretch, and its small acute force cost, beats squatting from a position they can't actually achieve.

• Keep holds short — under thirty seconds per muscle group, where the acute effect is small.
• Follow any static work with dynamic movement and potentiation, which largely restores output.
• Target only the specific restriction limiting the session, not everything.
• Place it early in the warm-up, not right before the first hard effort.
• Treat it as a workaround. The real fix is dedicated range work at another time of day.

Zoom out, and the static-versus-dynamic debate matters far less than three structural questions: is the warm-up organised, is it specific to the session, and does it finish at an appropriate intensity?

Get those three right and use either stretch type, and you'll beat the coach who agonises over stretch type and gets the structure wrong. Every time.

Two worked warm-ups

Enough theory. Here's what the structure looks like when it hits the floor — every minute budgeted, every stage doing its job.

Sprint or speed session — 18 minutes

• Raise, 5 min: easy jogging with a gradual pace increase, then skipping.
• Activate, 3 min: glute bridges 10, band lateral walks 10 each way, calf raises 12.
• Mobilise, 5 min: leg swings front and side 10 each, walking lunge with rotation 8 each, inchworm 6, A-skips 2 by 20 m.
• Potentiate, 5 min: build-up runs at 70, 80, 90 and 95 per cent over 40 m, with walk-back recovery.

Notice the shape: by the final build-up you're at 95 per cent — so the first sprint of the session proper isn't a leap into the unknown, it's the next step.

Heavy squat session — 14 minutes

• Raise, 4 min: bike or rower at an easy pace.
• Activate, 3 min: glute bridge 12, band pull-apart 15, dead bug 8 each side.
• Mobilise, 4 min: deep squat rocks 10, 90/90 hip transitions 8 each, banded ankle mobilisation 10 each, goblet squat hold 30 s.
• Potentiate, 3 min: empty bar 8, then ramping sets of 5, 3, 2 up to 90 per cent of the working weight.

For lifters, those ramping sets pull double duty — they're mobilisation and potentiation in the exact pattern you're about to load. It's why the rest of a lifter's warm-up can stay brief.

The eight-minute version

Short on time? The stages that survive are raise and potentiate.

Cutting temperature elevation and the intensity build to protect a full mobilisation sequence is the wrong trade — those two stages carry most of the preparatory value.

1. Raise: 3 minutes of continuous movement. Non-negotiable.
2. Mobilise: two drills only, chosen for this session's most restrictive joint.
3. Potentiate: 3 minutes building to session intensity. Non-negotiable.
4. If something must go, skip the activate stage — potentiation partly covers it.

Eight minutes honestly spent beats twenty minutes of ceremony.

And don't drift the other way either: a twenty-five-minute warm-up has quietly become the session. Fifteen to twenty minutes covers almost everything.

Last thing — the cool-down. Static stretching after a session is a perfectly reasonable time for range work: the force decrement no longer matters and the tissue is warm.

Just don't do it expecting less soreness. The evidence for meaningful reductions in delayed onset muscle soreness from post-exercise stretching is weak, whatever the changing-room wisdom says (Herbert et al., 2011).

And foam rolling, since someone always asks: it can slot into the warm-up. It produces short-term range increases without the force decrement of prolonged static holds — likely a neural effect, and a transient one (Wiewelhove, 2019). Treat it as a supplement to the four RAMP stages, never a replacement for any of them.

Sport applications

Sprint and jump athletes benefit most from a thorough potentiation stage, since the first competitive effort is maximal and there is no opportunity to ease into it.

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Team sport athletes should use a structured multi-component warm-up such as the FIFA 11+ model, which has reasonable evidence for injury reduction and includes strength and balance elements alongside mobilisation.

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Weightlifters and powerlifters get most of their preparation from ramping sets, which serve as both mobilisation and potentiation in the specific pattern. The general warm-up can be relatively brief.

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Kicking and combat sport athletes require end-range hip mobilisation at speed, and this is one of the few contexts where controlled ballistic work has a defensible sport-specific rationale.

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Endurance athletes need comparatively little; a progressive build from easy to session pace covers most of the requirement and extended mobilisation offers little.

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Common mistakes

• Running the same warm-up before every session. The time budget is limited. Drills should target the joints and ranges the coming session actually requires.
• Finishing the warm-up at half the session intensity. The most common and most consequential error. The potentiation stage exists to close the gap between warm-up and first hard effort.
• Skipping the raise stage to save time. Temperature elevation is what makes the mobilisation effective and is probably the largest single contributor to any performance benefit.
• Using dynamic stretching to try to gain range. It is a poor tool for long-term flexibility development. Range work needs sustained or loaded methods and belongs at a different time.
• Confusing dynamic with ballistic. If momentum carries the joint beyond controlled range, the tissue is doing the decelerating. That is a different exercise with a different risk profile.
• Never stretching statically under any circumstances. An overcorrection. A short hold to reach a position the session requires is a reasonable trade, and the acute decrement from brief holds is small.
• Attributing injury reduction to mobilisation alone. The evidence comes from multi-component programmes including strength, balance and plyometric elements. Mobilisation on its own has not been shown to produce the effect.
• Warming up for twenty-five minutes. At some point the warm-up becomes the session. Fifteen to twenty minutes is sufficient for almost everything.

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Coaching cues

• "Warm first, mobilise second" to protect the raise stage.
• "Finish where the session starts" for the potentiation stage.
• "Control the top of the swing" to keep dynamic work from becoming ballistic.
• "Warm up for this session, not for every session."
• "Range now, flexibility later" to separate warm-up from development work.
• "Two drills done well beats twelve done briefly."
• "If you could stop it, it is dynamic."
• "Ramping sets are the warm-up" for heavy lifting.

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FAQs

Is static stretching before exercise really bad?

Prolonged static stretching, over roughly sixty seconds per muscle group, produces a measurable acute reduction in force and power. Shorter holds have a much smaller effect, and the decrement fades over twenty to thirty minutes and is reduced by subsequent dynamic activity. So it is not harmful in any lasting sense; it is simply a poor use of the pre-session slot for most purposes.

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How long should a warm-up be?

Fifteen to twenty minutes covers almost everything, structured across the four RAMP stages. If time is short, protect the raise and potentiate stages and cut the mobilisation content, because those two carry most of the preparatory value.

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Does dynamic stretching prevent injury?

Structured multi-component warm-up programmes do reduce injury rates in team sports, with reasonable supporting evidence. But those programmes include strength, balance and plyometric elements alongside mobilisation, and the mobilisation component alone has not been shown to produce the effect. Attributing the benefit to dynamic stretching specifically overstates what the research shows.

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Can I use dynamic stretching to get more flexible?

Not very effectively. Dynamic work is good at making existing range available and poor at increasing it. Long-term range development responds better to sustained static work, loaded end-range work, or PNF-style methods, performed as a separate session rather than as a warm-up.

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What is the difference between dynamic and ballistic stretching?

In dynamic stretching the athlete controls the movement and decelerates it actively before end range. In ballistic stretching momentum carries the joint past controlled range and the tissue does the decelerating. The practical test is whether you could stop the movement at any point. Ballistic work carries more risk and rarely offers an advantage for general warm-up purposes.

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Should I stretch after training?

It is a reasonable time to do range work if range development is a goal, since the tissue is warm and the acute force decrement no longer matters. The claim that it reduces muscle soreness is much weaker than commonly believed; the evidence for meaningful reductions in delayed onset muscle soreness from post-exercise stretching is poor.

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Do I need to warm up for an easy session?

Briefly. A few minutes of progressive movement to raise temperature is sufficient, and extended mobilisation adds little. The intensity of the coming session determines how much preparation it needs, which is why a fixed routine is inefficient.

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Is foam rolling part of the warm-up?

It can be, and it produces short-term range increases without the force decrement associated with prolonged static stretching, which makes it a reasonable pre-session option. The mechanism is likely neural rather than any change to tissue structure, and the effects are transient. It is a supplement to the four RAMP stages rather than a replacement for any of them.

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Recommended videos

Each video below was chosen because it covers a specific part of this article in more depth than text alone allows.

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Related reading on FitXplor

• 4.9 Understanding Range of Motion
• 4.1 Flexibility vs Mobility in Athletic Performance
• 4.2 The Joint-by-Joint Approach to Movement
• 3.4 Sprint Mechanics and Maximum Velocity
• 4.5 The Hip: Mobility, Stability, and Power Transfer
• 4.3 The Foot and Ankle Complex
• 2.5 Power Development and Explosive Strength
• 1.7 Recovery Science and Adaptation

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References

Behm, D.G., Chaouachi, A. (2011). A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. European Journal of Applied Physiology.

Behm, D.G. et al. (2016). Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.

Kay, A.D., Blazevich, A.J. (2012). Effect of acute static stretch on maximal muscle performance: a systematic review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Jeffreys, I. (2007). Warm-up revisited: the RAMP method of optimising performance preparation. UKSCA Journal.

Bishop, D. (2003). Warm up I: potential mechanisms and the effects of passive warm up on exercise performance. Sports Medicine.

McGowan, C.J. et al. (2015). Warm-up strategies for sport and exercise: mechanisms and applications. Sports Medicine.

Soligard, T. et al. (2008). Comprehensive warm-up programme to prevent injuries in young female footballers. British Medical Journal.

Sadigursky, D. et al. (2017). The FIFA 11+ injury prevention program for soccer players: a systematic review. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Opplert, J., Babault, N. (2018). Acute effects of dynamic stretching on muscle flexibility and performance: an analysis of the current literature. Sports Medicine.

Herbert, R.D., de Noronha, M., Kamper, S.J. (2011). Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Wiewelhove, T. et al. (2019). A meta-analysis of the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery. Frontiers in Physiology.

Fradkin, A.J., Zazryn, T.R., Smoliga, J.M. (2010). Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.