How Stretching Can Explode
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.
Stretching is one of the most under-utilized techniques for improving athletic performance, preventing sports injury and properly rehabilitating sprain and strain injury. Don't make the mistake of thinking that something as simple as stretching won't be effective.
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 dumbbell 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 informative article was written by Nick Nilsson, president of Better U, Inc.
Net Gains
Five ways to recover from your toughest workout
It's hard to get excited about cold showers, taking naps, and popping fish-oil capsules. But all three can help you grow muscle and gain strength.
Take Fish Oil
It has been linked to reduced inflammation , which helps fight the soreness you feel a day or so after a heavy lifting session. You can find fish oil in pill and liquid forms in most drugstores and supermarkets.
Don't Go To Failure
It's OK to do it in a couple of workouts per month, but routinely hitting the wall will damage your body's ability to recruit your strongest muscle fibers and will deplete your protein and carbohydrate reserves. Instead, cut off your sets one rep shy of the most you could do with perfect form.
Drink A Post-Workout Shake
Chugging a mix of high-glycemic carbs and whey protein as soon as you're done lifting stops muscle breakdown right away and begins repairs. Look for a powder that offers a rough ratio of two grams of carbs for every gram of protein.
Get Wet
When you're showering after a workout, make the water as cold as you can withstand, and let it beat on the muscles you trained for one minute. Then immediately turn the water to as hot as you can withstand for another minute. Repeat the process a few times. The contrasting temperatures flush more blood into your muscles, providing essential nutrients that speed healing.
Sleep!
Your body releases growth hormone while you sleep, so staying up late every night robs it of the ability to build muscle. Make sure you get eight to 10 hours, and sneak in a nap during the day whenever possible.
