The importance of movement and stretching before and after your workout
Fact checked by Shannon Sparks
There’s an adage that if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Although you may not truly be dehydrated, thirst signals that your body needs fluids.
As a personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist, I use a modified version of this adage with my clients: If you’re tight, you’ve waited too long to address it.
When people think about addressing tight muscles, they imagine stretching. But that’s just one method. Stretching, combined with a mobility and recovery plan, can help prevent injuries and boost mood.
As we age, we tend to take longer to recover, whether from sleeping on a bad mattress or working out too intensely. But regardless of age, mobility should be part of a wellness continuum to ensure that the connective tissue surrounding muscle and bone — fascia — remains hydrated.
Fascia is like a sponge. It can dry out and become inflamed, leading to restrictions and compensations. Studies show that after stretching and compression, fluid rushes back to the tissues.
Vincent Barbaro, personal trainer and owner of Motus Functional Fitness & Pilates, incorporates not only mobility, but also what he calls “pre-mobility” into his client sessions.
“The squat is the best bang for your buck exercise, but we’re going to do pre-conditioning before we even attempt a squat,” Barbaro says, mentioning a pigeon pose to open the glutes and hips. He also takes his clients through a common dynamic warmup called a lunge matrix series. This warms up the lower extremities in all three planes of motion, building stability and mobility, especially in the hips.
Barbaro focuses on functional manual reaction, or FMR, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, or PNF — advanced therapeutic stretching techniques to improve mobility, strength, and function. The studio offers an array of recovery services, including infrared saunas and a cold-plunge pool, as well as Pilates and massage therapy.
Shannon Toulabi, a personal trainer and Pilates instructor at Cheetah Gym, says mobility is foundational to her work. “In my one-on-one sessions and in my Pilates classes, we are always incorporating a proper warmup and mobility component,” she says, listing tactics such as resistance bands to warm up the shoulders and rotator cuffs, single-leg RDLs (Romanian deadlifts), and squats to activate the glutes and hamstrings. She will also perform hip CARs (controlled articulated rotations), especially with runners.
Toulabi ran the Chicago marathon in 2025and remained injury-free, which she attributes to her mobility and warmup regimen.
With so many components to our daily routines — from calorie tracking to getting enough sleep — it can feel cumbersome to add one more task to the mix.
But remember: A few simple movements before activity can keep muscles hydrated and open, reducing the risk of injury and pain.
Give yourself the gift of checking in with your body. Go easy, and see how you’re truly feeling. Address any tightness or pain. Rest if you’ve been pushing too hard. And most importantly, remember that we don’t have to feel bad forever.
Movement can be healing. And fitness isn’t about looking good; it’s about feeling good.
