Can Stretching Really Improve Your Muscle Growth?

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear muscle growth? Whatever your answer may be, it’s probably not stretching, right? But did you know that stretching is not only important for flexibility? Stretching for muscle growth is a real thing, and it’s actually quite effective.

In fact, if you’re not stretching, you may be diminishing your gains without even realizing it. How so? Well, there are many reasons — one of them involving the fascia that surrounds your muscle.

Every muscle in our body is essentially enclosed in a bag of rigid connective tissue, which is known as fascia. Let’s dive a little deeper and get a good understanding of precisely what fascia is and how stretching the fascia can lead to more significant gains in muscle tissue.

What is Fascia?

Fascia is quite fascinating. It is crucial for holding your muscles in their proper place inside your body. But again, fascia (itself) could be holding back your muscle growth.

Let’s think about your muscles for a second. You feed them and take care of them by working out so that you can achieve quality muscle growth, right? But, if they do not have enough room to grow, how will you succeed?

A Better Visual and Explanation of Fascia

Here’s an example for you to give you a better visual in your head. You have a small wooden box with a hole in the side. You stick a balloon through the hole and start blowing it up. There will come a point where the balloon is touching all four sides of the box and can no longer get bigger. In this example, the balloon is your muscle, and the wooden box is the fascia. If the fascia isn’t able to be stretched out to help expand muscle growth, well… muscle growth itself simply cannot happen without the space. It makes perfect sense, no?

Fascia is very rigid, so it really doesn’t allow your muscles any room to expand and grow. The size of your muscle will not change no matter how hard you work out or how well you improve your nutrition plan to promote muscle growth, as the connective tissue (fascia) around your muscle will be constricting the muscle within.

Related Article: What is Stomach Stretching?

One of the best examples would be your calf muscle. The lower leg is constructed of thick fascia because of its heavy weight-bearing duties and everyday tasks (such as walking). It is due to the fascia that many bodybuilders find it challenging to grow muscles. They may have the biggest upper body on stage and still have the smallest calves in a lineup.

Now that we know what the issue is with fascia, what is the solution? Fortunately, stretching is the best solution to this common issue. Granted, just because you stretch your calves does not automatically mean they will grow. There are still several factors that come into play.

Note: It is recommended that you consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program to ensure you are healthy enough to do so and do not have any health concerns that could become intensified through the inclusion of strenuous activity.

Stretching for Muscle Growth — The Importance and Benefits

According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found that intense stretching of a specific muscle group post-workout can significantly increase lean muscle mass (the number of muscle fibers) in as little as 28 days.

Below are three incredible benefits that you can achieve through stretching.

1. Gains in Lean Muscle Tissue Growth

Let’s get straight into the facts (the real science) and cut out all the broscience theories floating around out there. Researchers from the University of Tampa concluded that stretching a muscle for about 30 seconds with weight right after reaching failure during a workout could potentially double muscle growth when compared to the control group over a period of five weeks.

Granted, in five weeks, you’re not going from 120 pounds to looking like Arnold, but any and all muscle growth, especially more than what would come from the control group, is still pretty astounding.

Besides that, stretching an isolated muscle such as the biceps or chest increases blood flow, which means an increased amount of muscle-building nutrients can be delivered to the muscle to improve overall recovery of torn down muscle fibers. Additionally, the increased blood flow and ability to get the muscles the nutrients they need quickly post-workout can help reduce muscle soreness as well.

2. Increase Flexibility

One of the most popular reasons why stretching is essential is flexibility and its relation to muscle growth. Regular stretching can help you increase your body’s flexibility. Flexibility does help allow you to perform everyday activities with ease, but it can also help delay the decrease in mobility that generally comes with the aging process.

By stretching your muscles under certain conditions, you are actually stretching your fascia, and that gives the muscles in your body more room to expand. When your muscles are fully pumped and engorged with blood, they press against the fascia. If you stretch hard at that time, you can increase that pressure directly on the fascia, and it can lead to expansion of the fascia, which can eventually lead to greater muscle growth.

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