It's worth looking at "active isolated stretching" for an approach that is well-regarded in distance running circles and is an alternative to the "static stretc

It's worth looking at "active isolated stretching" for an approach that is well-regarded in distance running circles and is an alternative to the "static stretching" that this article is referencing: http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/active-isolated-stretching-exercises http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/active-isolated... . It's easy to learn and is a sort of middle ground between stretching and the active warmup suggested by the article. Stretching is absolutely important in certain situations -- context matters. E.g. if you sit all day and have back pain, in general you should be doing psoas (hip flexor) stretches, and should not be doing back stretches. The article is mostly right that you should stick with light stretching and exercises on a daily basis, but for tightness and imbalances that need to be actively corrected, stretching is the way to go.