Add stretching to your workouts to warm up before training or cool down afterward. Warm-ups increase heart rate and blood flow, reduce injury risk, and improve mobility. Cool-downs return your body to a resting state, prevent lightheadedness, and reduce soreness.
Table of Contents
Types of stretching exercises
How to enable stretching
How stretching affects your workout time
Why you might see fewer stretches than expected
FAQ
Types of stretching exercises
Soft Tissue
Foam rolling exercises that increase blood flow and muscle elasticity. These exercises are often included at the start of a workout to prepare your muscles and connective tissue for movement.
Dynamic Stretches
Controlled movements that take your joints and muscles through their full range of motion. These stretches focus on active movement patterns rather than holding static positions, making them ideal for warm-ups.
Static Stretches
Hold a stretch position without movement to lengthen muscles and improve flexibility. These stretches are most commonly used during cool-downs when your muscles are warm.
Primers (iOS only)
Activation exercises that prepare your muscles for heavy lifting. Only available as a warm-up to help prime specific muscle groups before your main workout.
Note: Exercise availability depends on your individual settings.
How to enable stretching
- Tap My Plan.
- Scroll to Preferences > Stretching.
- For each stretch type you want to use:
- Toggle ON.
- Select timing: Warm-up or Cool-down.
- Enable as many or as few as you'd like.
- Tap the back button > Done.
Your stretches will now appear in collapsed sections at the top (warm-up) or bottom (cool-down) of your workout.
Tap Warm-Up or Cool-Down to expand and see the exercises.
Setup examples
- Quick warm-up: Soft tissue (warm-up) only.
- Warm-up+recover: Soft tissue (warm-up), static (cool-down).
- Full mobility: All types enabled.
How stretching affects your workout time
Stretching time is included within your total workout duration, not added on top.
Fitbod reserves approximately 10% of your workout (up to 10 exercises) for mobility work, which means less time for your main exercises unless you increase your total duration.
Why you might see fewer stretches than expected
The app filters out mobility exercises based on:
- Missing equipment: If you don't have a foam roller, soft tissue exercises won't generate.
- Excluded exercises: Stretches you've excluded in Manage Exercises won't be recommended.
- Muscle relevance: Stretches must be relevant to the muscles you're training.
FAQ
Why is my workout shorter when I enable stretching?
Stretching time is included within your total workout duration, not added on top. When you enable stretching, time is reserved from your workout for mobility exercises.
Can I enable multiple types for warm-up or cool-down?
Yes. You can enable as many types as you want.
Can the same stretch type be both warm-up and cool-down?
No. Each type (soft tissue, dynamic, static, primers) can only be set as warm-up OR cool-down at a time, not both simultaneously. However, you can change this setting anytime in My Plan.
Why don't I see primers on Android?
Primers are currently only available on iOS.
What if I don't have a foam roller?
If you don't have foam rolling equipment selected in your gym profile, soft tissue exercises won't be recommended. Fitbod only suggests stretches you have the equipment for.