I can't stress how important it is to stretch. You should be stretching out your muscles very extensively in the morning right after you wake up. Think about how cats stretch after a nap. That is what you should be doing but to an even greater extent. You should stretch before and during your workouts. Even if you don't work out, you should stretch your muscles several times a day to promote flexibility and blood flow.

I recently started doing yoga, and this is true. I feel so much better after I've stretched, and I'm starting to notice a difference in the way I feel throughout the day. I feel a lot less tense because of it.

My pilates instructor tells me that if you don't do any other exercise during the day, stretching is the one thing that you should do. The morning after an intense pilates workout, I can tell you stretching a must in order to get going.

I never knew about the importance of stretching after sleeping. I think I do most mornings anyway as my body automatically does it, but useful to know it has a good purpose

Stretching and warning up, oh my it brings back painful memories. We once decided to take an almost 20 mile bike ride without doing anything before hand. This was our longest bike ride (still to date) and I swear we were sore for a week.

Well, I have to agree because when I learned about Tai Chi, Yoga, and the like, I realized that all those years of doing football and baseball warm up exercises and stretching, really had a purpose! I do feel much better when I do it too.

When I first started working out, I was really bad about not following the workouts with a good stretch. After a few months, I started to have back problems on account of it, so now I stretch everyday -- almost religiously!!

I used to think that those stretches were stupid. It turns out that it was just my youthful ignorance that made me think that way. I remember doing a good half an hour of stretching before baseball games. It probably saved me from several muscle tears, aches and general soreness.

I feel much better when I stretch, but I frequently forget. I need to at least stretch my neck and back several times a day. Maybe I should set a reminder in my phone so that I can build the habit. I am inspired to go stretch right now!

I agree 100% with this. You have to stretch your muscles. We always do a warm-up before we start the exercise routine. This stretches our muscles before we use them. We also do a cool-down and this is also a lot of stretching.