Weekly work vs. daily work on stretches

I have a general question touching on this old question of training frequency that I see pop up here regularly.

I know that Coach Sommers states in the stretch series that doing those workouts more than one time a week will only hurt your progress rather than help your progress. That is echoed here in the forums, and it made more sense to me when one of the forum coaches mentioned that it depends upon the recovery of the CNS to make progress, not necessarily working harder. However, I have also noticed coaches giving advice to GB members to consider doing short, focused stretch sessions on deficient areas. On one post it was suggested to train that area up to once a day. Why would this benefit a concentrated area, but if FS is done more than once per week it would hinder improvement?

My quads and hip flexors are major trouble spots for me, and I can't even get into the vertical shin stretches, so I would like to have some clarity so that I can catch these muscles up if I can.

Thanks

Hey Jimmy,

Think of completing the entire stretch session like making your body run a "stretching marathon". After a marathon your body will naturally need some extra recovery time. You don't want to jump directly into another marathon, but it is ok to do a light "1-2 mile jog".

On your off days, your are welcome to do a light limber before and after your workouts. If you like, you can even incorporate one or two stretches from the Stretch series into your limber. However, these should be done at a much lighter intensity and for a much shorter duration (about 20-30 seconds max). Your hard stretching should be saved for the days you are scheduled to do the Stretch courses.

I also highly recommend including some extra work from the Restore and Fundamentals courses into your daily limber. These contain several exercises that will help you target your quads and hip flexors. The new Hip series is also a great addition for your hip flexors.

@Jeffrey Bittner that was a really helpful analogy, thank you very much!