Stretching For Bigger Muscles

Can stretching really lead to bigger muscles? Yes it can! Today we look at how stretching can help you on your journey to those bigger arms and massive legs.

One of my favorite reasons why stretching helps muscle growth is because it elongates the muscle. By elongating the muscle, there is more space for the muscle to grow and makes the muscle look bigger and more aesthetic. It won’t look shortened or too small for the area it is supposed to cover anymore.

Static Stretching

Static stretching is a type of stretching where you stretch and hold a certain muscle for a few seconds before releasing (like toe touches). Research has shown that static stretching before exercise (hamstring stretch before running, for example) does not actually decrease the risk of injury. Research has also shown that static stretches do not improve muscle performance either, but actually decrease muscle output. For example, stretching biceps in a static fashion before doing bicep curls will decrease their maximum output before failure. This effect lasts for over an hour following a good, thorough static stretch.

Does this mean that there is no place for static stretches in the world of muscle growth? Not at all! Static stretches aren’t effective as a warm-up or before exercise, but they do offer benefits like increasing range of motion, releasing tension and correcting postural imbalances.  All of which will decrease overall risk of injury in the long-term and help with optimize muscle gain. By increasing range of motion, you are able to get the best out of every rep. For example, people who have a problem with their heels lifting off the floor during the squat (bad form) because of tight calves muscles and tendons can do static calf stretches for a few days to loosen them so that heels are flexible enough to stay on the ground and stabilize the squat movement. Lifting weights can tighten muscles over time which leads to them losing their overall range of motion. For example, people who have built up their upper bodies but have not stretched regularly can often feel uncomfortable when resting with their hands folded behind the back of their head.  This is not because their muscles are too big, but because their muscles have grown tighter over time. Static stretching can both prevent and undo this.

As discussed above, static stretching is NOT best done before exercise. Static stretching can be done after exercise to cool down. This works well because when the muscles are warm, they are more flexible and will therefore respond well to stretching. Even better, static stretching is great to do on rest days for a variety of reasons. Firstly, not much energy is required to stretch and this means that you are still not burning too much energy on your off day. Furthermore, static stretching releases built up tension. It also and relaxes the muscles. This helps them to recover faster and grow more. Static stretching also helps to improve blood flow which helps the muscles disperse lactic acid and get the nutrients needed for recovery.

Dynamic Stretching

Dynamic stretching is a type of stretching that has movement throughout the stretch, for example swinging the arms in front of the chest and behind the back to stretch out the upper body (chest, back, biceps and triceps). Dynamic stretching, in contrary to static stretching, is well suited as a warm-up before exercise because it increases blood flow to the muscles and ‘wakes them up’ before exercise. Studies have shown that dynamic stretching of a certain muscle before weight training increases its power and strength output. For example, swinging the arms in front of the chest and behind the back could increase the amount of reps performed on the bench press. Besides increasing short-term power, dynamic stretching also elongates the muscles and increases range of motion.

Stretching helps to make sure that the muscles are supple. Having big muscle won’t cost you your mobility. For bodybuilders, stretching does not need to be done daily, but a good stretch once or twice a week could just give you an extra edge. As small as the impact stretching has on muscle growth seems to be, over time the difference adds up and makes a significant contribution. STAY STRONG!

Making Friends at The Gym

The gym can be a great place to make good friends with people who have the same goals and ambitions as you. Many great friendships have been formed in gyms and if you want the kind of friends that like to be active and healthy as well, then the gym might be a great place to start.

How to Make Friends at the Gym

Dont Be Annoying

See The Most Annoying People in the Gym and make sure you are not one of these people. Make sure you arent the annoying guy at the gym because you wont make any friends at all that way. 

Make sure that your first objective for going to gym is to work out. Dont go to the gym just to make friends. This comes across and you wont win the respect of anybody there if that is the case.

Train hard. Look as good and perform as well as you can. People around you notice these things. You should not go to the gym in jeans and a shirt to look good. That will make you look silly and unfocused on training hard. Look good by being presentable. You might at gym but take some pride in yourself. I mean things like brushing your teeth and wearing clean gym clothes. The bigger and stronger you are, the more likely people will want to be friends with you. Use this as motivation to do your best at the gym. Just as much as you notice the people who are really good at the gym, you want to be one of those people so that others can notice you too.

Be Approachable

Start by being approachable. Maybe you look intimidating without knowing it? Many people do. If your eye meets someone elses (which will happen by accident), smile. Smile often to give off the impression that you are kind and nice and easy to talk to. Open up your body language. If you are on your phone between sets or if you are using headphones then people should respect you and not bother you. Ditch these things if you want to make friends.

Talk To a Variety of People

You might want to be friends with the biggest and coolest looking guys in the gym only, but going up to these people in the middle of their training is going to irritate them. Dont want to be the irritating person. Be nice and pleasant to everybody at the gym: the staff, the cleaners, the old guy that talks to everybody and even the people that you wouldnt usually associate yourself with. They are generally nice people, and once you make friends with these people, you will be introduced to more and more people until you know almost everybody around the gym.

Gym at a Set Time

Most people gym at the same time routinely. If you are able to gym at the same time regularly, you will start to recognize reoccurring faces, and start getting to know the people there. Going to gym at a different time can sometimes feel like walking into a different gym altogether. Personally, whenever I gym at a different time from normal, I am surprised at all the strangers there. The funny part is that they all probably think Im a newbie cos they obviously havent seen me there either.

Baby Steps

Dont rush in and try to start conversations with everybody. That will be annoying to the other gym members. Start with baby steps. Make it a habit of smiling often. Greet people as you walk past them. Try to greet everybody you can and not only certain people. A simple how is it going will do, dont stop everybody to shake their hands if you dont know them. When working on exercises that need spotting like the bench press, ask people around you for a spot, but make sure not to cause them inconvenience and take up their time so that they cant focus on their own workouts. If someone is using a machine or weight that you want to use, ask how many sets they have left, and if the number is 3 or greater, ask if they mind sharing with you. Most people wont mind sharing weights with you as long as it doesnt slow down their own workout. If the number of sets they have left is 2 or more, asking to share will sound silly so just wait until they are done. Feel free to ask them for advice when you need to. Most people love giving advice and they will enjoy talking to you about what they know.

Dont overdo it

This is very important. Dont ever talk to someone so long that they end up taking too long in-between their sets. They will start to associate you with slacking off and will try avoiding your conversation altogether if they think it will lead to decreased performance in their training. If you want people to like you, you need to try to end up doing most of the listening in a conversation. When we talk, we often focus so much on what we are saying that we dont realize that the person listening is just waiting for you to end talking so he or she can get away. You dont want that to happen to you. Develop the ability to distinguish whether the person is interested in talking to you or not. Most people wont tell you that you are irritating them out of courtesy, so try to draw the line between being annoying and friendly. If someone has earphones or is on their phone dont bother them unless you know them. There are many people who dont like chatting at all in the gym. You need to see the difference between the people who dont mind interacting with others and the ones that dont want to talk at all. Take it easy. Just because someone greeted you back doesnt mean you should be asking for their number. People will take time to start seeing you as a buddy in the gym as opposed to a stranger. Slowly but surely get to know people a little more and more each time you can and let things happen naturally.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Stay Strong!