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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: fascial 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.
Instructions
for Stretching
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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