I have a question about the impacts of not stretching.

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About a week ago I went to the gym and worked out, and for the next three or four days my chest was extremely sore. Now, it's not sore anymore, but I can't reach my arms back as far without feeling a stretch. I wonder if it was caused by me leaving hastily without stretching. Could my muscles have grown back to be inflexible? And how should I make them less tight?

Also, if this makes any sense, the stretch feeling doesn't feel normal. Usually stretches feel like shining bluish-white, but these stretches feel red and orange with lots of white lines. I don't know if that helps any...but there it is.

Short answer: No.

The medical literature is pretty clear: stretching does not mitigate delayed onset muscle soreness. If I was to speculate I would expect that you had changed your routine, either doing more, or more strenuous exercises than you had previously. Eccentric contractions (such as the smooth return of weight after lifting) are particularly prone to causing exercise injury.

i'd say warming up and down is more important. Stretches do not work for everyone, some people get more injuries if they stretch but i think it is generally advisable.

Warm down is essential in my opinion

It's probably just your muscles feeling pain from the workout.

Warming up before stretching is good. It's possible to hurt yourself stretching, but it's also possible to hurt yourself working out, it's about knowing what your limits are. It's also good to lightly stretch and shake off after working out.

Forgetting to stretch after a workout, if stretching after is what you normally do, is probably a lot less of a problem than failing to stretch before a workout, if that's what you normally do. Here's why: What matters more than when you stretch is being consistent about when you stretch, because your muscles get used to whether or not you stress them in that way before doing something else.

So, to clarify, there's no significant difference in likelihood of injury between those who stretch before running and those who stretch after. The danger increases, however, if someone normally does one and then tries to switch to the other. The body is unprepared for the unusual activity or lack thereof before the run, and injury can result.

That being said, my opinion is that, if you usually stretch before you work out, failing to do so can have quite an impact on what happens while you work out and how you feel after. However, if you normally stretch after you work out, the activity it could've impacted is over if you forget or don't have time to stretch, so the biggest problem you'll have is probably that you'll be disappointed that you missed out on a part of your routine. But if you stretch regularly, missing every once in a while won't likely cause you any harm.

One way to make sure you stretch is to do it in between sets of whatever strength training you're doing. That way, you always make time, and you make sure to stretch whatever muscle you're strengthening.