The gym debate over stretching has been going on for decades. The “never stretch before lifting” crowd and the “always warm up with static stretches” crowd have been arguing past each other while most people do neither consistently and wonder why they keep getting hurt.

Here is what the research actually shows — and more importantly, the honest assessment of where most athletes actually are with their mobility.

What the Research Found

A 2017 study examined the effects of static stretching before exercise — specifically unilateral knee extension taken to failure — and found two things worth knowing:

Static stretching before lifting reduced total training volume by 15–20%. Participants doing a stretched leg averaged about seven fewer reps per training session compared to the unstretched leg. Fewer reps means less volume, and less volume generally means less hypertrophy over time.

Strength was nearly identical between groups. Static stretching before lifting does not appear to significantly inhibit strength gains, even with the reduced volume. This is interesting and probably underreported.

Flexibility was significantly greater in the group that stretched. Which should surprise no one, but is worth noting — stretching makes you more flexible. If mobility is a limiting factor in your training or your performance, that outcome matters.

The practical interpretation: static stretching immediately before a lifting session may reduce your total rep count and therefore your hypertrophy stimulus. If building muscle mass is the priority, save static stretching for after the session. If mobility is the limiter — and for most people in this audience, it is — the tradeoff is worth understanding rather than just picking a side.

The Honest Assessment

Here is the part most stretching articles skip:

The research question is “does stretching before lifting hurt performance?” The more important question for most military and tactical athletes is “are you mobile enough to train safely and effectively at all?”

For most people who have spent years sitting at a desk, driving, wearing body armor, and performing the same movement patterns repeatedly — the honest answer is no. Hip flexors are tight. T-spine is locked down. Ankles have limited dorsiflexion. Shoulders are rounded forward. These restrictions are not abstract mobility scores. They are the direct cause of the movement compensations that produce injuries.

Limited mobility does not just make stretching valuable. It makes it necessary.

The Practical Recommendation

Before training: Use dynamic warm-up movements rather than static holds. Leg swings, hip circles, thoracic rotations, bodyweight squats through full range of motion — these increase tissue temperature, rehearse movement patterns, and prepare the system for training without the volume reduction that static holds produce.

After training: Static stretching is well-suited here. The tissue is warm, the training stimulus has already been delivered, and spending 10–15 minutes working through the positions that are most restricted will produce mobility gains without any performance cost.

Throughout the day: This is where most of the work happens. The hour after training is maybe 5% of your waking hours. The other 95% — if spent in poor positions — will undo everything you do in the gym. Stretching at your desk, during transitions, in the morning before you start the day — it all accumulates.

Five minutes of mobility work six times a day beats a 30-minute stretch session once a week by a wide margin.

Poor mobility is also directly tied to some of the most common running and lower-body injuries in the military and tactical population. The plantar fasciitis post and the shin splints post both trace directly back to restricted ankle and calf mobility as a root cause. Fix the mobility and you fix the preconditions for those injuries.