If you hard-stretch cold muscle you can get painful cramps.
I remember rugby league training and while we were all stretching and starting out a young guy got the cramps and had to be taken away in an ambulance.
Seeing that made me more cautious, the guy was in a lot of pain.

Stretching and cramps.
I knew a woman who was told by a sports instructor to stretch before exercise, and the woman did and got bad cramps.
She mentioned it to me and I said that if she stretched before her muscles were warm she was making cold muscle move when the muscles would move easier if the muscles were warm first.

My advice was to walk a while just to get the muscles gently moving, then warmer, and then stretch.
You may notice that many cyclists ride in a very easy gear at the start off their ride and that is to get the muscles warm before they really get into proper muscle movement.

What I often do when cycling is go on my tippy-toes while riding and stretch my legs while they are hot or warm and after a ride. But walking to cool down and then jogging a bit, walking again, it all adds up in loosening the muscles and freeing up the legs before and after a ride and also during the ride.
So what I am saying is that there is no harm at all to warming up by gentle exercise and then stretching and then a more vigorous exercise.

I tend to do a lot of stretching my legs while cycling and doing other exercises.

With stretching I tend to “go with the stretch” and the moment it feels uncomfortable or painful I relax.

You can stretch after waking up in the morning with gentle relaxing stretching of the arms, back, legs, and whole body.
This is very nice and relaxing, and your partner can also massage you and you massage them, its all part of the relationship agreement.

Stretching with a bo, pole, long stick is very nice and relaxing as well.

All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
18th of February, 2021.