According to David Goggins, stretching is an essential component of his extreme physical training.
Goggins follows a rigorous daily stretching protocol in preparation for enduring extreme endurance challenges.
David Goggins, renowned ultramarathon runner and Navy SEAL, is famous for his intense physical and mental training routines that push the human body to its limits.
In this post, we will share all of the David Goggins stretches, the benefits Goggins gets from stretching, and how he uses long bouts of stretching to achieve high levels of performance.
Top Picks
Stretching strap: The Original Stretch Out Strap
Yoga blocks: Trideer Yoga Blocks
David Goggins Book: Can’t Hurt Me
Slant board: Shogun Slant Board
David Goggins Stretching Routine
David Goggins attributes the conception of his stretching regimen to guidance early in his training from a physical therapist who assessed that after years of strenuous activity, Goggins had accrued over “50,000 hours of stress” in his body.
The therapist noted that Goggins was the “tightest” person he had ever seen and advised him to stretch for substantial daily durations to release chronic tension.
Initially skeptical, Goggins began experimenting with 1-2 hours of stretching at a time after his workouts.
He quickly noticed improvements in flexibility.
Over time, Goggins increased his stretching durations to an intense 8-12 hours per day, which he later reduced to 2 hours daily after the extreme routine had lasting positive impacts on his mobility.
He combines principles of yoga, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), and sustained static stretching.
David Goggins Hip Flexor Stretches
Tight hip flexors and psoas plague runners.
Goggins focuses extensively on hip openers through dynamic and static movements.
Start on your hands and knees.
Walk your hands forward while moving your hips back until you feel a deep stretch in the front of your hips.
Hold for 1-2 minutes.
Repeat on the opposite side. For deeper tension, add posterior pelvic tilts, tightening your glutes and abs to intensify the stretch.
Additionally, use kneeling lunge variations to target hip flexors.
For David Goggins, kneeling is an important foundation for many of his stretches.
With one knee up, contract your glutes and push your hips slightly forward, keeping your torso tall.
Place your hands on your front thigh. Lean gently into the stretch for 30-60 seconds. Repeat 2-4 times per side.
Adding a yoga block can help those who are earlier on in their stretching journey.
David Goggins Hamstring Stretches
Flexible hamstrings enhance running power and heighten kicking range for self-defense preparedness.
Lay down with one leg extended. Loop a strap around the ball of your extended foot. Hinge forward from the hip while keeping your back straight until you feel tension down the back of your thigh.
Go only as far as you can while maintaining spine neutrality. Hold for 30-90 seconds. Complete 2-4 reps per leg.
For variety, stand facing a chair or table surface. Place the heel of one foot onto the edge while keeping that knee straight. Push your hips forward until you feel the stretch intensify down your hamstring. Repeat on both sides.
Additionally, a slant board is a great option if you want to target a deeper hamstring stretch.
- Stronger steel construction vs. wood boards
- Grippy surface
- Collapses flat for easy transport
Step-By-Step Guide to David Goggins’ Quad Stretches
Goggins holds deep quad stretches for 20-30 minutes at a time, gaining immense knee extension improvements critical for downhill running.
Stand facing a wall. Place one hand against the wall for balance. Bend one leg back and grab your ankle with your opposite hand to hold your foot in place. Keep your thigh pointing down, hip pushed forward, and torso upright.
When ready for more intensity, engage your quad muscle, which will intensify the stretch via PNF principles. Hold for at least 60 seconds.
For passive stretching, lie face down and bend one knee back toward your glutes. Reach back to grasp your ankle. Gently pull the foot upwards while relaxing hip area muscles. Avoid over-arching the low back. Hold 1-2 minutes then repeat other side.
Related: Sauna Stretches To Boost Flexibility And Recovery
David Goggins Stretching Benefits
For Goggins, stretching provides practical physical benefits related to athletic performance and combating aging decline, along with profound psychological impacts that reinforce his mindset training.
Improving Running Economy
Goggins credits over 5 years of intense daily stretching work for substantially improving his running economy and race day performance through enhanced biomechanics.
He estimates gaining 45-60 free minutes across ultra-distance events like the Badwater 135 just via optimized movement efficiency.
Specifically, by elongating his hip flexors, quadriceps and calves through routines blending sustained static stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, Goggins notes his stride length increased by multiple inches.
This permits more powerful force generation and propulsion with each ground contact. Goggins emphasizes that opening up notoriously tight muscle groups like the quads and hip flexors transforms coordination.
Goggins progressed rapidly from struggling through 3-mile runs to excelling over 100-mile distances within a year, also reducing his pace by 90 seconds per mile.
The cumulative impact of graduated flexibility training conferred running resilience.
Strengthening Mind-Body Resilience
Goggins stresses that the acute discomfort stretching elicits at the heights he takes it forges mental armor transferable to any duress.
By voluntarily immersing himself in the severe, temporary pain of extending muscle groups past normal barriers for sustained durations, Goggins conditions profound patience and non-reactivity.
When race day arrives, having been conditioned through the torture of psoas releases, he no longer perceives cramps or fatigue as unwelcome obstacles.
They seem infinitely more tolerable, almost mundane stimuli versus holding intense inner thigh stretches for 30 minutes straight. This hardened response allows him to maintain a relentless forward drive when lesser-prepared athletes succumb to distraction or demotivation.
The inches he gains in splits translate to mental inches as well.
Therapeutic Value
For all the physical potency of stretching, Goggins equally values the mental recovery and life balance the simplicity provides after chaotic training and work demands.
The stillness aligns tissues and thoughts alike.
Due to extreme maneuvers in the armed forces and self-punishing ultra runs, Goggins requires daily opportunities to process trauma buried in his nervous system and psoas.
As Goggins shows, even the most demanding lives benefit from pockets of softness.
David Goggins Stretching Coach
David Goggins has endorsed stretching coach Joe Hippensteel for showing him proper flexibility techniques that have changed his life and remain part of his routine today.
Hippensteel specializes in integrated high-performance training, blending physiology, psychology, and biomechanics. His UHP ROM 24TM Flexibility/Mobility Standards help clients maximize range of motion potential without injury risk.
Though Hippensteel did not achieve his Olympic dreams in the grueling decathlon event, he evolved innovative methods for surpassing perceived human limits. The Navy SEALs hired him to coach their flexibility programs and his expertise profoundly impacted David Goggins.
David Goggins Stretch Marks
Having lost over 100 pounds rapidly in Navy SEAL training, Goggins strategically avoided loose skin through strength programming entirely different than typical hypertrophy goals.
Whereas others pursue heavy lifting for mass gains, Goggins trained solely for extreme muscular endurance.
His “100-500 Repetition Routine” uses lighter 5-15 pound weights but performs up to 500 consecutive reps per set with no rest except briefly at full muscle contraction
Metabolically, this trains the body for fat burning rather than bulk.
The extremely high volumes also tighten skin remarkably.
Cumulative tension from loaded, protracted sets sparks skin elasticity adaptations over 100 reps per set.
Strategically stressing tissues prompted the desired tone and contour outcomes.
Goggins emphasizes ignoring superficial markers of progress.
By training the body with relentless volume within current capability limits, he permitted substantive internal evolution – physical and mental alike.
This mindset shift conquered the loose-skin obstacle. Consistency and belief drive breakthroughs.
