I have been stretching seriously for about five years now and it has made a big difference in my life. I was lucky enough to find the book Stretching and Flexibility by Kit Laughlin at my local library. He emphasizes contract-release to become more flexible. Basically, you contract the muscle group you are stretching and then release and re-stretch it to gain a better range of motion. I can definitely say that I am much more flexible than I was when I started. I now look forward to the days that I do one of the lessons. Laughlin has devoted his life to stretching and does a great job of explaining exactly how each exercise should be done. It's a pretty serious time commitment - each lesson takes about an hour and a half - but the benefits are well worth it, in my opinion.