Stretching

As a ballet dancer, stretching is really important.  I mean, you can't just put your leg up to your ear or do the splits just like that.  Okay, some can because they're just born flexible, but for the rest of us "normal" people we have to stretch.  Defining more terms again! Hooray......

Ballistic Stretching: You use momentum to force your joints beyond their range of motion with a bouncing action.

Static Stretching: You extend your joints as far as you can or slightly beyond your range of motion and hold the stretch for an extended period of time.

Ballistic Stretching is now considered very dangerous as it can cause rips and tears in your muscles. Instead, static stretching is the way to go because it is much gentler on your muscles.

Joint Variation:  Well, usually joint variation is using a combination of both in your exercises but ballistic stretching is dangerous....so don't use a joint variation of these types of stretching.

I can statically stretch before ballet to become more flexible.  I can stretch every night before I go to bed. :D