How
Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth
Not only is stretching important for flexibility,
it is CRITICAL for massive, rapid muscle growth!
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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.
You
can find instructions for stretching at:
http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Info/Stretching1.htm
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.
