It is important to stretch slowly so your tendons and ligaments can have time to adjust and relax into the stretch, which will prevent them from being torn. Bouncing can accidentally tear your tendons and ligaments if you overstretch them. Responses will vary. A sample response follows: Stretching a muscle slowly prevents it from overextending and being damaged. When stretches occur too quickly, such as with bouncing, the muscle can be seriously damaged during the uncontrolled motions.

Doing a hurdle stretch with your leg pointed back can put stress on your back leg's knee joint, which can pop your knee out of place and put unwanted stress on the joint. Doing it with your leg inside gives you the exact same stretch, but doesn't harm your knee.Responses will vary. A sample response follows: Both types of hurdle stretches loosen up the hamstring in the same way. But the hurdle stretch with the leg pointed back puts sideways torque on the back knee and can result in injury. So while the potential benefit of the exercises are the same, one risks serious injury to the knee.

Balance stretching is giving equal attention to stretching all parts of your body. It is also important to stretch opposite muscles in equal amounts. For example, you need to stretch your hamstrings as much as your quads, and you need to stretch your right arm as much as your left arm.Responses will vary. A sample response follows: Balanced stretching refers to performing stretching exercises across the entire body. Stretching the entire body balances the fitness benefits across all muscle groups instead of limiting the benefits to a single or limited number of muscle groups.

Ballistic stretching is using motion to bounce and stretch your body past its natural range of motion. This can be harmful if you don't have a professional to help you because you can tear, damage, or pop your tendons, ligaments, or joints. Some examples of how to properly stretch would be to do dynamic stretching in which you move your joint through its range of motion, or to do static stretching which does not involve movement, but maintains an extended position.