When people talk about stretching, they usually mean static stretching: holding a pose for six seconds or longer to elastically deform the muscle. “Static stretching can increase your range of motion, but it also decreases the force a muscle can apply by about 5%,” Dinsdale says. Dynamic stretching (moving through a stretch, by doing exercises such as bodyweight squats or walking lunges) has more balanced benefits. “It doesn’t increase range of motion as much, but it can increase the muscle’s capacity to produce force.”