Sign up for workout ideas, training advice, reviews of the latest gear and more.

Flexibility is one of the most important—yet commonly overlooked—components of a balanced fitness routine. Whether you’re trying to reduce stiffness, improve posture, increase range of motion, boost athletic performance, or simply feel better in your everyday movements, dedicating 45 minutes to a structured full-body flexibility workout can transform how your body moves and feels. This comprehensive 45-minute flexibility routine is designed to lengthen tight muscles, release tension, restore mobility, and help your body perform at its best. Perfect for beginners and advanced exercisers alike, this session blends stretching, mobility flow, deep breathing, and mindful movement to deliver lasting results.
In this guide, you’ll get a complete breakdown of the workout, expert tips for maximizing your flexibility training, warm-up and cool-down recommendations, and science-backed benefits of stretching. If you’ve been feeling tight, stiff, or limited in your movement, this 45-minute full body flexibility workout is exactly what your body needs.
Flexibility is much more than just bending deeper into a stretch or touching your toes. It affects how efficiently your body moves, how well your joints function, and how strong and stable you feel during exercise and everyday tasks. Poor flexibility can lead to compensations, muscle imbalances, tight hips, stiff shoulders, achy lower back, and reduced performance during strength and cardio workouts.
Improving flexibility helps you:
For women who lift weights, do HIIT, run, walk, or train regularly, flexibility training should be woven into your weekly routine. This 45-minute full body flexibility workout is the perfect way to restore balance in your muscles, calm your nervous system, and support long-term performance and joint health.
This workout combines dynamic stretching, static stretching, mobility flow, active flexibility, and deep breathing techniques. It is divided into sections to ensure you stretch every major muscle group—from your shoulders and back to your core, glutes, hips, and legs.
Perform each movement slowly, never forcing your body into painful ranges. Breathe deeply and stay focused on how your body feels during each transition.
Before stretching deeply, your body needs to be gently warmed up. This increases circulation, boosts joint lubrication, and makes your muscles more pliable and responsive.
Move through slow spinal flexion and extension. This warms up your spine, releases tension in your back, and prepares your core for deeper stretching.
Open the shoulders, increase blood flow, and create mobility in the shoulder joints.
Loosen your hip joints and activate the surrounding muscles.
Lift each knee toward your chest while reaching overhead. This warms up your core, hip flexors, shoulders, and upper back.
Relax your head and neck and allow your hamstrings to soften.
This section focuses on opening the neck, shoulders, chest, upper back, and arms—areas that often get tight from daily tasks, strength training, and computer work.
Sit or stand tall. Gently tilt your head to one side while lowering your opposite shoulder. Hold and breathe deeply to release tension that builds from stress and poor posture.
Clasp your hands behind your back, lift your chest, and gently pull your shoulder blades together. This counteracts hunching and opens your entire front chain.
From hands and knees, reach one arm under your body and lower your shoulder to the floor. This targets the upper back, shoulder, and rotator cuff.
Lift one arm overhead and bend it behind your head. Use your opposite hand to apply gentle pressure.
Sit on your heels, reach forward, and sink your chest toward the floor. This lengthens the large muscles along your sides and releases tension that can limit upper-body mobility.
The lower body is the area most women hold tension—especially the hips, glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. This section helps unlock stiffness and restore a healthy range of motion.
Sit with one leg extended and hinge forward with a long spine. Avoid rounding your back. Breathe deeply and relax into the stretch.
Stand tall and grab your foot behind you. Keep knees close and hips aligned to stretch the front of your thigh.
Lean into a wall with one leg back. Press your heel down to lengthen your calf muscles.
Sit upright and bring your feet together. Gently press your knees toward the floor. This opens your inner thighs and hips.
Lying on your back, cross one ankle over the opposite thigh and pull your legs toward your chest. This stretch targets the deep hip rotators.
This active flexibility flow focuses on dynamic movement and gentle stretching to increase mobility in the core, hip complex, and lower back.
Step into a low lunge and press your hips forward. Raise your arm overhead for a deeper stretch in the hip flexor and obliques.
Sit or lie on your back and gently rotate your spine. Twists help decompress the lower back and improve rotational mobility.
Move slowly between cobra and child’s pose, allowing the spine to gently undulate.
This final portion brings your body into deep relaxation while lengthening the muscles further. Deep breathing is essential here.
Extend your arms overhead and reach your legs long. This decompresses the spine and opens your entire front chain.
Reach your arms overhead and bend gently to each side to stretch the obliques and rib cage.
This resets your hips, glutes, and lower body before finishing.
Finish with slow, deep breaths to calm your nervous system and promote recovery.
A session this length gives your muscles enough time to fully relax, respond, and lengthen. Benefits include:
Adding this workout to your weekly routine can dramatically improve how you move, feel, and perform.
This 45-minute flexibility routine is ideal for:
It’s a gentle, restorative session that supports long-term joint health and movement quality.
For best results:
Even 10–20 minutes per day can improve flexibility, but this 45-minute session provides full-body benefits that short sessions cannot match.
Your body deserves time to unwind, stretch, and restore balance. This 45-minute full body flexibility workout delivers exactly that—helping you reduce stiffness, enhance mobility, improve posture, and feel better throughout your day. Whether you’re lifting weights, doing HIIT, running, or just managing daily stress, this routine resets and recharges your muscles for optimal performance.
Include this session in your weekly routine, stay patient, and enjoy the benefits of a more flexible, mobile, and pain-free body.
Flexibility work is the perfect complement to strength and cardio routines, and we’ve got you covered: if you’ve already checked out our “45‑Minute Full Body Dumbbell MetCon Workout” that supports total-body strength, or the “Power Up: 30 Minute Full Body Barbell MetCon” that cranks up intensity, this 45-minute flexibility session helps you recover, mobilize, and restore. Pair it with our “60‑Minute Full‑Body Home Circuit Workout” for added endurance work and the “35‑Minute Dumbbell Functional Ab Training Workout” to support your core—and you’ll be training smarter, not just harder.
Stay up to date on the latest women’s health, fitness and lifestyle trends and tips.