Click Here for Free Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine Subscription
Stretching for maximum muscle mass
Posted by: Old School
Every muscle we have is covered by a tissue called fascia. It's there
for a particularly good reason, to hold your muscles in the right places
in your body. Muscle fascia can also do a job in restricting muscle
growth, because when your muscles grow to a certain point the tough
fascia tissue constricts further growth. They simply have no room to
grow!
A very simple analogy used is if you where to have two balloons and you
blew one up inside of another. When the inside balloon is being blown up
and eventually grows large enough to touch the second outer balloon it
then becomes restricted and difficult to keep growing.
Stretching is the answer
Now imagine that balloon scenario again, but instead pretend that you
stretched out the outer balloon first, giving room for the second inside
balloon to grow larger. That's essentially what we're getting at in
terms of stretching your muscles and doing it quite frequently. By
stretching your muscles you also stretch the fascia tissue. This is why
many bodybuilders swear by deep tissue message therapy. Stretching and
loosening up that tough fascia can help you grow!
Now, the best time to do your stretching for growth is not when your
muscles are cold. Stretching to loosen up and avoid injury is fine, but
the stretching we're focusing on is while we have a huge pump going.
When our muscles are chalk full of rich blood and pressing against that
fascia, we need to get full muscle contractions at the peak of our
lifts, but also get a deep and full stretch at the bottom. For example,
if you're doing dumbbell flys for your chest workout, when you bring the
dumbbells down at the bottom of the movement, slowly go into a deep
stretch and hold for a second or two, the explode up to the peak of the
movement and squeeze tightly for a full contraction. This kid of
inter-set stretching is vital for expanding and softening the fascia.
Between your sets when your muscles are pumped, continue to stretch and
flex to continue this effort of expanding the fascia tissue. Hold these
stretches between sets for 30-40 seconds, but be very careful not to
pull a muscle by doing these movement to harshly. They should be
executed slowly and with concentration.
Click Here for a Chance to Win Free Bodybuilding Supplements
[Powerlifting Forum] [Bodybuilding Discussion Forum] [Bodybuilder Forum] [Teen Bodybuilding Forum]
[Muscle Growth Forum] [Weight Loss Forum] [Workout Forum] [Health and Fitness Forum]
