Originally Posted by Trakhak

I probably tried stretching two or three times at most sometime in my twenties. Then I thought, what's the point, and stopped.

So at 74, it's been about 50 years since I stretched those few times. Other than stretching the way one does sometimes while yawning, of course.

The idea that being able to touch my toes while standing is important in some way is bizarre to me. Unless I'm wrong and our legs lengthened as we evolved expressly to provide precisely the necessary benchmark for stretching.

Regarding one common objection to objections to stretching: yes, animals stretch sometimes. For a few seconds at most. And almost certainly not to the point of pain.

Only humans do that, thanks to our tendency to overthink things. ("If stretching painlessly is good, stretching until it hurts must be even better!")

Cycling has supplied all the stretching I seem to need. All my bikes have aero bars, and I spend probably an average of 50% of my rides in a flat-backed aero position. Perfectly comfy.

Unlike many people I know, I experience little or no muscle stiffness. Certainly no stiffness of the kind that some friends of mine who are life-long yoga practitioners complain of. ("I have to do yoga, or I stiffen up!" I think, better still, go back in time and don't start doing yoga in the first place.)

There are almost certainly people who benefit from stretching because it helps with various non-stretching-related injuries. But I suspect many people without such injuries might be better off not stretching.

Maybe I'm lucky. Would like to hear from others who've avoided stretching because they never saw the point of it and lived to tell the tale.