How long does it take for stretching to take effect?

Question

i became very inactive for about 3 years while at university, i' not running daily, but have a terrible tight feeling in my heels, legs, chest, everythign, it's obviously because my tendons have shortened or wahtever and i've been stretching every day for aout 20 mintues after a warm up but i am noticing no difference and it's been like 3 weeks. i USED to stretch daily and lift and run daily about 4 years ago, and i loved that nice limber feeling and never feelign tight, i'm tryign to get back to that how logn should i be working at this or coudl there maybe be another problem of sorts?

Answer 1

Try active stretching first.  Like high knees, butt kicks, karaoke, kick outs (skipping, but bring knee as high as you can to you chest and then kick out as coming down), power skips (aka mario jumps), frankensteins (walk with arms in front of you kick leg straight up to touch your hands), etc.

Do one of these for about 25 yards. Stop and stretch something while you're stationary, like your quads calves, groin, arms; and then do another one of the moving streches back until you've done them all.

Then once you're done, stretch anything that still needs to be streched.

You can also do hip swings.  Stand in front of a fence or something sturdy and swing one leg left then right as far as it can go (without pain) while the other leg remains stationary.  Do with both legs about ten times each. You can also swing your leg forwards and backwards in the same way.

**Also make sure to stretch after your workout, this is the most important step**

If this still doesn't help then maybe it is some other problem

Answer 2

4 year brake is gonna suck man. I stopped working out for a year. its been 8months and im no where near where i used to be