Have you ever tried various stretching exercises to improve your body mobility and flexibility, only to feel extreme pain during the exercises and give up?
Even though stretching exercises are great exercises that can prepare your muscles for training of higher intensity, stretching exercises themselves are not sufficient for significantly improving mobility and flexibility.
If you lack in mobility and flexibility, that is often because some of your muscles are shortened. Your muscles were shortened in the first place because they were too weak. If the muscles had enough strength, they would have resisted the force trying to shorten it. Therefore, if you want your shortened muscles to recover their original lengths, you must strengthen your muscles through muscle resistance exercises.
In conclusion, if you want to improve your mobility and flexibility, it is most efficient to start with stretching exercises, move on to muscle resistance exercises and finish with muscle massage.