I know, it’s hard to do, it’s not very comfortable, and the only reason most of us do it is because everybody says “you need to stretch”!

Well, here’s a couple of better reasons.  First off, bones are just plain dumb.  They only do what the muscles tell them to do.  So if your muscles are too tight are not balanced, your joints will not “fit together” right, and uneven wear and tear will occur.  To complicate matters,  muscles only do what the nerves tell them to do.  So what, you say?  Well, here’s what.  There is a term called “nerve conduction pathway”.  As the term suggests, each nerve has a neat little path to run through in our body.  Unfortunately, nerves don’t stretch much.  If the muscles are too tight, they will create friction on the nerves.  Nerves don’t like friction!  They send out little signals telling the brain that they’re not very happy all cramped and pinched. All this complaining takes a toll on your body.    By stretching, the nerve conduction pathways can return to normal and the nerves quit whining to the brain. 

Then there’s the issue of junk being trapped in the too-tight muscles.  The tiniest blood vessels, called capillaries, are supposed to carry nutrients into the muscle tissue and carry out the waste material we create just by being humans.  By loosening the muscles, the capillaries are then able to do their job.

OK, so that was more than a couple of reasons to stretch.  I was on a roll.  There are lots of other reasons to stretch, but those should suffice for now.  Also, you only need one reason not to stretch.  More that one is just a waste of oxygen that you could be using to feed your too-tight muscles!
 

See more about stretching in Fred's E-Book