Day 4 is a stretching session, and its card looks nothing like the three you have already worked through. There are no sets, no reps and no rest instructions. There are six positions, numbered 1 to 6, and one line of guidance: count to 10 while holding each stretch, for each side. So you move through them in numerical order, hold each one while you count steadily to ten, and where a position has a left and a right version you do both before moving on. One pass through all six and the session is finished. It is genuinely that short - stretching is not a workout you have to survive, it is maintenance you give your body between the days that ask more of it.
Three days of work have gone into your legs, arms and middle, and this sequence is aimed squarely at what they left behind. Position 1 is a standing chest opener: arms straight and drawn back behind your body with the hands apart, which pulls the shoulders back and stretches the front of the chest. Position 2 is the same shape made deeper by clasping your hands together behind your back. Position 3 stands you on one leg and pulls the other knee up toward your chest with both hands, stretching the glute and the back of the hip. Position 4 is the second half of a good morning - hinged forward at the hips with the arms swept back behind you - and it lengthens the hamstrings down the back of your thighs while your back holds its position. Position 5 is a kneeling lunge with one arm reaching straight up overhead, which opens the front of the rear hip and travels up through the ribs. Position 6 is a side lunge: one knee deeply bent, the other leg stretched straight out to the side, which lands in the inner thigh - the one area none of the first three days went anywhere near.
The rule for all six is the same and it is important, especially if you have never stretched before: a stretch should feel like a long, steady pull, never like a sharp pinch. Ease into each position rather than bouncing into it, breathe normally instead of holding your breath, and stop moving deeper the moment it stops feeling pleasant. In the standing positions, keep your knees soft and your chin level. In the good morning hinge, bend from the hips with a flat back rather than rounding your spine over, and go only as far as your hamstrings allow. In the kneeling lunge, press the hips gently forward instead of arching your lower back to fake depth. In the side lunge, keep the straight leg's foot flat on the floor and sit back into the bent side. And expect one side of your body to feel tighter than the other - almost everybody's does.
Nothing to count past ten, nothing to finish out of breath, nothing at stake - today is the day the week gives something back.
Make it Harder: Harder is not a setting a stretch has - if you want more from today, count to 15 instead of 10 and let each position soften a little further while you do.
Make it Easier: Hold a wall or a chair for the standing positions and skip past anything that pinches - a shorter, comfortable stretch is worth more than a deep, unpleasant one.
