Muscle Fascia Stretching – what does that mean, exactly? Well, according to wikipedia:
“It interpenetrates and surrounds muscles, bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels and other structures. Fascia is an uninterrupted, three-dimensional web of tissue that extends from head to toe, from front to back, from interior to exterior.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascia
Basically, what this means is that there is a very tough, fibrous “web” of tissue that covers all structures in the body. There is an exceptionally strong sort of fascia that covers your skeletal muscles. Why is it there? Basically it acts as a sort of container for the muscle. It keeps the muscle belly wrapped up nice and tight so it doesn’t flop and slosh around on the bones. It also helps to protect the muscle from abrasions and lacerations. It keeps the muscle tightly bound to maximize efficiency of space and quick contraction.
What it does not do very well is allow the muscle to expand when needed. Meaning there will always be an upper “ceiling” to the immediate “pump” you can obtain with a muscle.
So how can we overcome this? By stretching! The muscle fascia, being a 3-dimensional cross-hatch of fibers that resists stretching in all directions must be STRETCHED in ALL directions in order to expand. So there is importance in all areas of bodybuilding to expand this muscle fascia.
- Strength conditioning builds density and anabolism
- “Pump” training builds intra muscular pressure to stretch the fascia
- Higher-Rep training builds vascular inroads to the muscle
- Stretching literally stretches the fasia longitudinally.
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of really, really strong guys who just weren’t that large. And I’m sure you’ve seen planty of guys with large muscle bellies who weren’t that strong. Those strong guys have to switch up their training to include volumizing workouts. These pump inducing workouts will cause the muscle bellies to increase their aerobic performance by increasing energy stores, capilliarization (increase in capilliaries within the muscle itself), and vasodilation (increase in size of vessels to and from muscle tissue). And those big weak guys should switch up their training to include more strength lifting. This will cause their big muscle bellies to gain “hardness” and density.
Furthermore, a great finishing move for training for muscle size gains would be be do a thorough flexing session for at least 5 minutes or so post-workout on the muscles trained. This further stretches the fascia outwardly directly where the muscle is trying to grow in the first place!
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Dr. Rex is a natural bodybuilder and a local authority on training for muscle development. Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter for superior muscle and bodybuilding information Here.
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