# Stretching and muscle growth :)



## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

How Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth!

By Nick Nilsson

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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.


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## robin_3_16 (Aug 27, 2003)

you have truly surpassed urself with this post hackskii

a truly great post infact i am incorpertating streches into my routine tomrorow

may not solve my growth problem but i have time

and i am guna play about with them

can't hurt

thanks mate


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

No probs Mate, but you need to know that this stretching is done with pumped up muscles only, otherwise it is useless.


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## Desdicado (May 7, 2003)

I only really stretch before a work out at present, Doh!, will need to change that I think.


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## BSF James (Sep 29, 2003)

When I (to my shame!) briefly worked at a fitness first - there was a guy who looked a bit like Louis Theroux (skinny, speccy and spooky) who would come into the gym and do nothing but stretches for about 2 hours then maybe 15-20 mins of weight training. We all tried to advise him that this was not the best way to achieve his goals but he kept saying a top strength coach had told him to do this. Needless to say the guy never changed his physique in the six months I was there. All we could think is that the 'coach' probably had a really mean sense of humour to make this poor guy stretch for two hours four times a week - it was embarassing to watch! The guy was such an ass whenever we tried to help him though that we gave up on him. You get some barmy people in gyms sometimes!

Anyway, great post hackskii. You're right as well - Arnold was always big on stretching whilst pumped. Even between sets he would be both stretching and posing the pumped up muscles.


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

Well, I always stretched before as I did not like to stretch a pumped muscle, it flet like I did not get the same range.

When I was a young man at about 25 I met a stripper she was the most flexible of anyone I knew. She taught me how to stretch. I focused most on stretching the legs and hips out.

To this day, I still can do the splits. 

The funny thing about range is you never gain flexibility, you only loose it the older you get. I am not saying that you cant be flexible but look at little kids they can put their legs behind their heads and think it is funny. Ever seen old people with hunched over backs and walk with a 6" step?

If you want to be flexible then it takes time like anything else.

A stretched warmed up muscle is less prone to injury and about 25 percent stronger.

I was reading about calves and the amount of fascia involved in the weight bearing muscles that support your whole body and I believe that if your calves are not growing then get a really good pump and stretch the crap out of them this should help growth.

Up until a point a muscle with more range is a stronger muscle. Not just outside the range but in the middle of the range as well. If you did an exercise with half the movement then the whole muscle is not worked efficiently. stretching at the bottom and top of the lift is really important as long as an injury is not involved.

Oh another thing, when I stretch it makes me feel better and is one of the only things that give immediate relief from stress and stiffness. It relaxes me.


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## robin_3_16 (Aug 27, 2003)

just tried this for my workout,

u know i said that guy was helping me today

well he never turned up,

so angry about it, thats the 4th training partner to let me down

anyway did the stretches after each excercise,

amazing i could do more reps then usual, and more weight

worked 3 muscle groups which i didn't like, but one of the best workouts i ever had,

my usual pump was multiplied by two after the stretch

and then the nexy excercise i was at least 25% stronger

strongly recommend this excercise

thanks hacksii

lost the pump now but look forward to 2 days time when my muscles recover abit and reach full size,

guna eat hard now and get good sleep!

thanks so uch i iwll be using this from now on, hope to increase my bench with this

thanks


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## Jud6572 (Apr 30, 2003)

Another great post from a man who knows what he's talking about.


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## T-man (Sep 3, 2003)

I wish I could find me a flexible stripper to help me!

I have also had good gains, better pumps and more soreness the next day since I have been streaching hard between sets for about a year now. Mostly for chest, back and bis.

A lot of old timers used to do light streaching pullovers after high rep breathing squats to streach and expand the rib cage. Also an exercise called the radar chest pull. I tried then a few times and man the next day it felt like I had been punched in the ribs.

Good info hackskii


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## robin_3_16 (Aug 27, 2003)

whats this excercise to stretch the ribcage?

it sounds intreaging


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## Jud6572 (Apr 30, 2003)

hey hackskii just incorperated your stretching into my routine yesterday. And I felt great! If you read in arnies books he always tells you to be hitting poses after every set so i guess this could have been his way of teaching people to do this.


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

Robin, Pullovers stretch the ribcage and are best done after your chest routine. Basically you grab a dumbbell and lay your back across a bench. Across the bench and not like you are going to do bench but across it. Your shoulders will be in the middle of the bench. Sit the dumbbell on your chest and raise it strait up take a deep breath and lower the weight over and above your head at the same time you dip your hips down and lower the weight at the same time. The dumbbell will end up just below the bench at the end of the lift. Then at the start of the life it will be strait above the chest. Make sure you have a deep breath while stretching as this is part of the expanding phase of this lift. The breath gets held till the end of the lift after the stretching portion is done.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2003)

hyperplasia doesnt trigger hypertrophy IMO


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

hyperplasia

Definition:

Increased cell production in normal tissue or an organ. An excess of normal tissue.

I dont think we are on the same page on this. 

I was talking about the benefits of stretching with a pumped muscle and more flexibility. The more range in the muscle you have the more strength you have within the entire range of that muscle. You only lose range with age, you dont gain it. What ever you are talking about is not the same as what I was saying. I am not defending myself as:

Arnold was always big on stretching whilst pumped. Even between sets he would be both stretching and posing the pumped up muscles.


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2003)

> Originally posted by hackskii
> 
> *hyperplasia*
> 
> ...


yes, hyperplasia is the rebuilding of the micro fibres in the muscle tissue, you said that stretching increases muscle growth/hypertrophy, i disagree, some say that stretching reduces strength prior to lifting by 15% thats why some people only stretch post workout, of course stretching helps prevent injury and improve flexibility but trigger hypertrophy, no


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2003)

What Is Muscle Growth? Hypertrophy vs Hyperplasia.

Muscle Fiber Hypertrophy

To begin, I'd like to cover the two main ways for an individual to increase overall muscle size. The first, muscle fiber hypertrophy, refers to the increase in the diameter of the individual muscle cells. The larger the cells, the larger the overall muscle, it's that simple. Muscle fiber hypertrophy = Big muscle fibers.

Muscle Fiber Hyperplasia

The second, muscle fiber hyperplasia, refers to the splitting of muscle fibers in the interest of creating new fibers. Obviously this would be of interest to anyone pursuing size or strength due to the fact that and if an individual has more fibers, their overall size potential is greater. Therefore when looking at hyperplasia, Muscle fiber hyperplasia + Muscle fiber hypertrophy = Many big muscle fibers. Ahh, the elusive double dose of size!

At this point, I know that you're all supercharged to learn how to both make more fibers and to make them bigger, but I'm going to have to put the breaks on and be the bearer of bad news. The problem with hyperplasia is that no one really knows exactly how to promote it. Once we are born, some experts believe, muscle fiber number remains fixed for our lifetime. Therefore under normal circumstances muscle fiber hyperplasia seems nearly impossible. Interestingly, though, experts have begun to speculate that under abnormal circumstances, hyperplasia can contribute to overall muscle growth. For starters, recreational or even moderately intense weight training will probably NOT do it.

Unfortunately there has not even been any evidence that very intense weight training will promote hyperplasia. One proposed link to hyperplasia, though is anabolic steroid use. A recent article in the American College of Sports Medicine's Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise found evidence for muscle fiber hyperplasia in anabolic steroid using powerlifters(1). This however, is pretty much the first evidence of a mechanism for hyperplasia in humans. [Editor's note: there is fairly long-standing evidence that hyperplasia does occur in (of all things) weight trained cats.]

The bottom line is that unless we are ready to boatload anabolic steroids into our systems, neither you nor I are going to be enjoying the benefits of muscle fiber hyperplasia any time soon. At least not over a period of less than 5-10 years (and even then it would be modest). So what about hypertrophy? Well that, my friends, is a promising reality.

By: John Berardi, BS


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

HGH with AAS and slin and good PCT and diet, good routine and genetics! 

Oh, I get it you will give us the answer?


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2003)

> Originally posted by hackskii
> 
> *HGH with AAS and slin and good PCT and diet!*
> 
> ...


lol, you dont like me very much do you? lighten up buddy, whats wrong with me trying to help people? are YOU the only one allowed to?


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

No, sorry. I must have got the wrong first impession.

I Read the other article and actually liked it. I train that way myself.

Sorry, Man!!!! 

I am just here to help too.

Sorry


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2003)

> Originally posted by hackskii
> 
> *No, sorry. I must have got the wrong first impession. *
> 
> ...


its all good man, we r cool


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

right!!! 

I am always interested in new techniques and different styles in training.

It is just a hobby. I like to search the boards more than lift actually. Sorry for giving you a hard time in the beginning, not cool on my part and actually made me feel bad.

Sorry again!


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## philipebrown (Nov 26, 2003)

Hi

I actually thought that Scott was talking about making the pillow case more expanable and not adding extra thread to the pillow case if you get my drift.

Nobody mentioned Hyper.....the other one!

I still think you have a point scott! I read years ago that the outer edge of a muscle can become hard with age and can make the muscle grow more slowly . By loosening this tissue to a degree we can allow the muscle inside more room to grow more easily, like having your nose decongested.

Eg. Footballers place their hamstrings under enourmous pressure and are prone to injury and tears. This results in scar tissue which actually shortens the muscle and makes it less flexible and shortens the range of movement.

example... the dosile Jason MacAteer!!!!!!

However, if we then class stretching as an important part of our routine then think about this. Whenever we stress a muscle it stiffens up afterwards so that we cant move it so much while it has time to heal. In this case surley using hard stretching would actually be done better on a daily basis or 2xday.

Before and after training, at night and on rest days. Just a thought.

Also to back up the other guys point and contradict myself, I always feel less strong if i stretch between sets as it makes the muscle ache like im injecting lactic acid.


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

I actually was. It is called fascia.

Your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. That was actually my point.

As far as muscle fibers are concerned they do get bigger and fuller with resistance training. They also get bigger and fuller with AAS even without working out. Creatine can help for cellular volumization within the muscle but to my knowledge there is only one way to increase the number of muscle cells and this is with HGH.

There might be another way but I have not heard about it.

It just does not make sense to me for a muscle fiber to devide and multiply. I know Cancer can do that but I dont think muscle fibers do. IMO


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## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

There was this pro body builder named Rory Leidelmeyer. He believed that you could split the muscle by doing 100 reps. He tried to hard sell it to all the body builders. He trained that way for a while and it never happened. This guy was one to always go heavy. Then he jumped on this 100 rep workout and he didn't get any bigger. I think he actually lost some size. I just thought it was so funny because he was trying to tell everyone he had the magic bullet before he even tried his theory. I think what happened was he trained so heavy all the time and then doing reps all of the sudden and in switching up his routine he probably got some real good gains at first.


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

100 continious reps?

POW! That has gotta hurt, especially around the 80 rep and above. I think I will just cheat and do a cycle of HGH and Testosterone. OOPS!


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## Guest (Dec 24, 2003)

tom platz did 50 rep squats


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## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

Ouch, that would be torture. Especially squats. He had some really massive legs. At the time his legs were the biggest of all.


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## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

Yea and it was with allot of weight also. That is how those things got so massive. Do you think the hgh from the reesis monkey had anything to do with it. Have you seen Platz's jaw? I will just through a word out there for a visual. Pit bull


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