Just submitted a piece on Resistance Stretching--a flexibility modality which I wrote about, somewhat disparagingly, here, but discovered through my research is actually quite valuable. You can find a practitioner of Resistance Stretching--technically called Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training, or RFST--here, and I think they're worth a look. Seems like RFST not only loosens up your muscles and tendons, but also pulls fascia, scar tissue, and muscle adhesions out of muscle tissues, which results in greater strength and flexibility gains than regular stretching. Moreover, RFST helps you gain strength in your extreme ranges of motion--so that you're less likely to get injured when you find yourself overstretched for some reason--like if you slip on ice or dive for a pass in flag-football.

Anyway, it's good stuff.

Stingy as I am, I haven't yet looked up an RFST person in my neck of the woods, but I have started taking advantage of one of their key ideas in my own post-workout flexibility work, which typically takes me about five minutes. Essentially all you do--and just to clarify, this isn't RFST, it's just one of their principles applied to everyday flexibility work--is contract the muscle opposite the one you're stretching.

In practice: do a standing toe-touching movement. Try it just hanging there, like you are typically instructed to do: a relaxed stretch, letting gravity pull you forward and down. Note how far you can reach. Stand for a moment, then try it a second time, this time contracting the quads as forcefully as possible as you reach for your toes. Hold the contraction for 20 seconds or so. You may or may not get closer to your toes by contracting the quads, but try the toe-touch a third time--this time relaxing again--and you will almost certainly get closer to your toes.

The RFST principle here is that the limiter in stretches is often the muscle OPPOSITE the muscle being stretched. Meaning, in the toe-touch stretch, the quads aren't able to sufficiently shorten to allow the hips to flex maximally forward. "Teach" the quads to contract and the problem is alleviated.

Experiment with this idea in all stretches. It makes a huge difference. Stretches become isometric exercises: more painful but also way more effective. You feel wrung out afterward--in a good way. You also tend to sweat like a hog. Don't know why exactly. Just don't leave your towel at home.

I've seen this technique in some yoga classes and always wondered why it worked. I always assumed it was "reciprocal inhibition"--meaning that the muscle opposite a contracting muscle tends to relax more fully. I imagine this is also happening but this 'enabling' of the shortening function also seems to be part of the equation.

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Read "How to Touch Your Toes I" here.