One of the most important aspects of ballet preparation is the thorough stretching of your muscles.

Ballet stretching is a vital action that protects your muscles, joints and connective tissues, allowing you to maintain exacting control over your movements with less chance of injury.

However, stretching your muscles is not the same as 'warming up'.

Your warm up exercise, which can simply be walking until your sustained heart rate ensures an increased blood flow to your muscles, should be partnered with your stretching to help you achieve the greatest range of movement, with the least amount of stress on the body. It is essential to remember that training one's body to fully release a contracted muscle and attain the maximum 'stretch' of that muscle, is as important as training one's body to sustain the contraction of a muscle. You also need to be aware that your warm up and stretching are immediate preparations for performing your ballet exercises. Muscle elasticity, stored energy and increased blood flow quickly subside if the body is not put to work right away.

Proper ballet stretching takes time to learn, and time to perform. To achieve the greatest benefits from stretching, you must first learn your limits. These limits will involve the amount of stress any of your joints and your connective tissues, tendons and ligaments, can safely endure. Stretching is intended to help you be less prone to injury, not to create injuries through improper or excessive stretches.

Learning your limits can involve some trial and error unless you take some time to educate yourself on your own anatomy and to listen carefully to experienced ballet dancers or to your ballet instructor. Do not approach stretching in a detached manner. You are tuning your body in order to express beauty through ballet, and you should respect such preparations.

The amount of time a stretch 'should' be held is a variable as infinite as the number of elements that make each person a unique individual. A beginning ballet student may find that they can only hold a stretch position for a few seconds at a time. This is no cause for alarm, because you are asking your muscles to do something they are unaccustomed to doing. With careful, consistent repetitions, even a beginner to ballet will find they can perform stretches that reward them with greater flexibility and stamina.

A simple maneuver can reveal the sensation of a stretched muscle and its associated tendons and ligaments. Slowly open your hand, extending your fingers and thumb as far as is naturally possible, and then hold them in that position. You should experience a feeling that each finger is 'growing'—shooting past its own fingertip. The feeling may be intense or very mild, but is directly caused by the stretching of the muscles, ligaments and tendons of the hand. This same sensation may be felt in other parts of your body when you stretch, and it's a good idea to be mindful of every sensation your body relays when stretching or exercising. The body communicates through sensation, including pain, so be aware that if you have been stretching regularly and notice a continued soreness, for several days for instance, that seems associated with muscle ends (ligaments and joints)—it's time to re-evaluate your stretching.

Over-stretching soreness can usually be easily remedied by simply easing back on your stretch hold times, and by switching to alternative positions that stretch the same muscle group without taxing the sore ligament or joint.

There are five basic stretches: Quad, Hamstring, Calf, Split and Releve. Your instructor will probably present each to the class and show the proper execution of each. If you are not attending ballet classes, there are many resources available, in online ebooks and videos with clear illustrations and directions on performing each stretch. These five basic stretches provide movements that allow complementary muscle groups to expand, contract and balance against one another—giving your instrument an excellent 'tuning' and a wonderful beginning to your ballet exercises.