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  1. #1
    Registered User OverWorked's Avatar
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    Stretching to Explode Muscle Growth

    Source:http://www.muscleworldforum.com


    Iron Magazine
    How Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth
    Posted on Wednesday, March 01 by: Nick_Nilsson

    When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

    Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body. But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

    Because fascia is so tough, it doesn't allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won't change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.

    The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

    The solution: stretching.

    Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space. By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.

    The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.

    When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

    One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

    Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it.

    Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

    Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren't pumped, just stretch normally.

    One set of hard stretching after each set you do for a muscle group, besides the obvious benefits of increased flexibility, can have an incredible effect on the size of your muscles and their further ability to grow.


    This is also how Syntherol works. It stretches the Facia allowing for new muscle to fill the space.


    The following are examples of general static stretching and mobility exercises that could form part of the cool down program at the end of a training session. The aim is to relax the muscles and facilitate an improvement in maximum range of motion. In all exercises breathe easily whilst performing them and hold the static stretches for 20 seconds.

    Chest Stretch
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
    • Hold you arms out to the side parallel with the ground and the palms of the hand facing forward
    • Stretch the arms back as far as possible
    • You should feel the stretch across your chest

    Biceps Stretch
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
    • Hold you arms out to the side parallel with the ground and the palms of the hand facing forward
    • Rotate the hands so the palms face to the rear
    • Stretch the arms back as far as possible
    • You should feel the stretch across your chest and in the biceps

    Upper Back Stretch
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
    • Interlock your fingers and push your hands as far away from your chest as possible, allowing your upper back to relax
    • You should feel the stretch between your shoulder blades

    Shoulder Stretch
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
    • Place your right arm, parallel with the ground across the front of your chest
    • Bend the left arm up and use the left forearm to ease the right arm closer to you chest
    • You will feel the stretch in the shoulder
    • Repeat with the other arm

    Shoulder and Triceps Stretch
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent
    • Place both hands above your head and then slide both of your hands down the middle of your spine
    • You will feel the stretch in the shoulders and the triceps

    Side Bends
    • Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, hands resting on the hips
    • Bend slowly to one side, come back to the vertical position and then bend to the other side
    • Do not lean forwards or backwards

    Abdominal and lower back muscles
    • Lie face down on the ground in a prone position
    • Lift your body off the ground so that you are supported only by your forearms and toes. The elbows should be on the ground and should be almost directly below your shoulders. Your forearms and hands should be resting on the ground, pointed straight ahead, toes and feet should be shoulder width apart and your head in line with your spine
      Abs and back
    • Contract your gluteus (bum) muscles gently. Hold for ten seconds
    • Lift your right arm off the ground, straighten it and point it straight ahead, holding it in the air for 10 seconds
    • Return to the starting position
    • Repeat with the left arm
    • Return to starting position
    • Lift your right leg off the ground and hold it there for ten seconds (keep back straight).
    • Return to starting position
    • Repeat with left leg
    • Return to starting position
    • lift your right arm and left leg simultaneously and hold them in position for ten seconds
    • Return to starting position
    • Lift your left arm and right leg simultaneously and hold them in position for ten seconds
    • Return to the starting position

    Hamstring Stretch
    • Sit on the ground with both legs straight out in front of you
    • Bend the left leg and place the sole of the left foot alongside the knee of the right leg
    • Allow the left leg to lie relaxed on the ground
    • Bend forward keeping the back straight
    • You will feel the stretch in the hamstring of the right leg
    • Repeat with the other leg

    Calf Stretch
    • Stand tall with one leg in front of the other, hands flat and at shoulder height against a wall.
    • Ease your back leg further away from the wall, keeping it straight and press the heel firmly into the floor
    • Keep your hips facing the wall and the rear leg and spine in a straight line
    • You will feel the stretch in the calf of the rear leg
    • Repeat with the other leg

    Hip and Thigh Stretch
    • Stand tall with you feet approximately two shoulder widths apart
    • Turn the feet and face to the right
    • Bend the right leg so that the right thigh is parallel with the ground and the right lower leg is vertical
    • Gradually lower the body
    • Keep you back straight and use the arms to balance
    • You will feel the stretch along the front of the left thigh and along the hamstrings of the right leg
    • Repeat by turning and facing to the left

    Adductor Stretch
    • Stand tall with you feet approximately two shoulder widths apart
    • Bend the right leg and lower the body
    • Keep you back straight and use the arms to balance
    • Repeat with the left leg

    Groin Stretch
    • Sit with tall posture
    • Ease both of your feet up towards your body and place the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to come up and out to the side
    • Resting your hands on your lower legs or ankles and ease both knees towards the ground
    • You will feel the stretch along the inside of your thighs and groin

    Front of Trunk Stretch
    • Lie face down on the floor, fully outstretched
    • Bring your hands to the sides of your shoulders and ease your chest off the floor, keeping your hips firmly pressed into the ground
    • You will feel the stretch in the front of the trunk

  2. #2
    Registered User OverWorked's Avatar
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    Continued.....

    Iliotibial Band Stretch
    • Sitting tall with legs stretched out in front of you
    • Bend the right knee and place the right foot on the ground to the left side of the left knee
    • Turn your shoulders so that you are facing to the right
    • Using your left arm against your right knee to help ease you further round
    • Use your right arm on the floor for support
    • You will feel the stretch along the length of the spine and in the muscles around the right hip

    Quadriceps Stretch
    • Lie face down on the floor, resting your fore-head on your right hand
    • Press your hips firmly into the floor and bring your left foot up towards your buttocks
    • Take hold of the left foot with the left hand and ease the foot closer to you buttocks
    • Repeat with the right leg
    • You will feel the stretch along the front of the thigh

  3. #3
    In Ferum Veritas jude-o's Avatar
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    Their reasoning seems very suspect to me. Growing cells can exert tremendous force; witness tree roots heaving up and cracking concrete (or a brain tumor neatly crushing the human brain while confined within the skull.)

    I'm a fan of stretching (got to maintain flexibility), but if it does help muscle growth, I doubt it's for the reasons this author suggests.

  4. #4
    Finding my Potential empresscat's Avatar
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    Massage can help as well - plus massage has other benefits, such as increasing circulation and all the good things that happen when you increase blood flow to a muscle. (Improved healing & growth time, decreased soreness.)

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    Shoot first then ask jawter's Avatar
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    I forget the name of the book I recently read that had a section discussing the pro's and con's of stretching. In the end the author supported "Deep stretching" and used Arnold S. as proof that it works.

    After much reading I tend to agree that stretching will help create the needed micro-tears to promote muscle growth but as with anything moderation is the key.....IMHO.

    I will try to remember to get the name of the book and author when I go to work on Sunday.

  6. #6
    Registered User Todd_A's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by OverWorked View Post
    Source:http://www.muscleworldforum.com

    One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.
    And I always thought it was the incredibly huge amounts of steriods he was injecting into his body.

  7. #7
    SRSGRL'S #1 FAN SR800's Avatar
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    And his genetics.

    I have found that stretching after each body part has led to increased flexibility, but more importantly, very steady strength increases.
    UP the IRONS!

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    Message Board King Baldsnake's Avatar
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    The Pearls stretched the facia with both massage and slow motion high high rep pumping. A method I prefer.

  9. #9
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    Wink OOOOooo... AAAaaaaa

    Originally Posted by Baldsnake View Post
    The Pearls stretched the facia with both massage and slow motion high high rep pumping. A method I prefer.
    ME TOO! Getting a massage at 4 today! He is the Sea Hawk's team masseuse! Can't wait! ed
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    I hear opposing views on stretching. Either do it to aid recovery or don't do it because it keeps the blood in the muscle.

  11. #11
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    Sea Hawks?

    Hey Supe....does he clip your flight feathers??

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    Great post, I'm bookmarking this for future reference, I need to stretch WAyyyyyyy more than I do!

  13. #13
    I hate soup stobco's Avatar
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    Well, seeing as this old thread has been revived (almost 9 years old), what's the consensus on stretching?
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  14. #14
    Skinny Beast lschepis's Avatar
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    My training partner who is very knowledgeable about lifting stretches after every body part for growth...makes sense. I see cons mentioned. Anybody know about these?
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