If you feel the need to compete with random strangers at the gym, you have already lost.
There is a benefit to combining stretching with the notion of Hygge. As I mentioned a week or something ago, I’ve pulled out my old Bob Anderson, and resurrected for my own purposes the concept of stretching as pleasurable, as something to look forward to. This is in marked contradistinction to the notion of “don’t go in the pain cave”. I have his book too, and do do rolling which is quite painful sometimes, but I have decided to do random Bob Anderson routines a couple times a day, gentle to the point where I am almost just THINKING of the stretch.
Stretching is a bit like dealing with people. You push too far, they contract, and everything gets harder.