Would you recommend stretching before or after exercising? I never know which to do first!

Stretching before you exercise will warm the muscles up so your less likely to pull anything while exercising. Is good to warm the muscles down after exercising as well so you dont get stiff and sore.

Both! You’ll want to warm those muscle up before getting into anything to vigorous. Not too much, just enough to warm you up. Then dive into your work out (once your muscles are really warmed up I’d recommend a light stretch again between sets) and then the best way to end your workout is a slow, easy stretch. All those muscles that where contracting and tightening now get a chance to loosen up, your heart rate has time to come down, and it will help you from getting sore.

I’d rather do a stretch afterwards to lengthen the muscle as it is warmed up and flexible. Though I like to stretch my back (doing cat-cow) in the morning just to let go off the morning stifness.

I would recommend stretching before to warm up the muscles but I like to do it after as well because after excercising you can stretch farther.

Best time to stretch is AFTER you exercise. Stretching is something for a long term goal, it increases your range of motion and you're less likely to feel stiff. The idea that you should stretch before a workout to prevent injury is a myth. You must slowly warm up before an intense workout. Don't strain yourself before you've loosened up. Stretching after you workout while your muscles are still warm will allow you to push yourself a little bit further than normal and increase your flexibility long term.

Generally I stretch before, although stretching afterwards will help to release tension in the muscles boost the repair of your muscles.

I think its better if we do before both. Im no excercise expert at all, but i think that before the workout the stretches will give us the flexibility and blood flow needed to kick start the workout and avoid any injuries related to wrong movements (because usually this happens when our bodies are stiff). And of course afterwards to avoid any cramps after thr workout and to relax the muscles and get the breath back to normal.

Ideal progression: light warmup, stretch, heavy exercise, stretch. In other words, don’t stretch cold and stretch before and after a heavy workout. If it’s a lighter workout, just stretch after.

I would do after! Studies have shown that static stretching beforehand actually decreases your performance and mmakes you more prone to injury. Dynamic stretching beforehand – where instead of holding a position you move between them and don't stay in one spot – is a great warm-up, though! If you're curious, I would read the book "The First 20 Minutes." It's very informative!

You will probably have a better stretch after your muscles are warm, but you don’t have to wait until the end of your workout to stretch.

Lightly jogging/marching in place for a few minutes may be enough to warm the body to go into a stretch, but you still want to consider including a stretch at the end as well.

Post workout stretches for me feel more productive of the two and are the gateway to relaxing. More importantly, I think you should do what feels best to you, even if it changes day to day.

I would recommend to try and do both. I would do longer stretching before you workout to warm up our muscles so you have less of a chance of an injury. And I would stretch
after a workout to help cool down so you don’t go from exercising to completely stopping your body from moving which also is not good. Also try and go for a quick walk as a cool down when you’re done. 🙂

Personally I do both. It really helps me start warming up to do my exercises when I do it before, but I’ve also read that most doctors recommend if you’re only going to stretch once during a workout, it’s best to do it after because it’s best for you to stretch already warm muscles.