bird study Archives

How to Add More Mass With Stretch, Part 1

Q: You’ve been diving into the growth-promoting potential of movements that emphasize the stretch phase of a muscle’s range of motion. Your science and logic seem pretty solid and correlates with some of the exercises I’ve done that cause significant soreness in a target muscle group. Do you think this could be as much a result of micro-damage from stretching as enhanced fiber recruitment? I could see this micro-trauma also causing hypertrophy, but I was curious if you had an opinion on this. I remember the sorest I’ve ever been was from an overly exuberant dive into stiff-legged deadlifts. I know biomechanics says that it’s almost exclusively a glute movement, but hamstrings do get a significant stretch under load at full extension, which my soreness verified.

A: Here’s a quote from hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., on a human study using stretch only, which produced impressive muscle hypertrophy (from Old Man, Young Muscle)… [Read more…]

Stretch Overload Results

Q: In the first chapter of the Freak-Physique Stretch-Overload Workout e-book [The Latest Stretch-Overload Research] you mention the animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle mass increase after one month of stretch loading. That is incredible, but are there any other studies that show stretch overload results?

A: When it comes to stretch-induced muscle growth, we always mention that particular animal study because it’s the most impressive—triple sizing a muscle after a month’s worth of stretch-overload “workouts” is phenomenal! And it shows the importance of stretch-position exercises for triggering extreme muscle size quickly. Stretch overload results can be pretty phenomenal.

[Read more…]

Study: Forgotten Muscle-Mass Trigger

It’s becoming clear that muscle elongation is very important for accelerating hypertrophy to a new level.

In other words, loaded stretching can provide another layer of freaky size quickly.

An older study that we often reference showing that was performed by Jose Antonio, Ph.D., et al.—and it produced incredible muscle size increases. Here’s what he said about it: [Read more…]

Study: This quick hit can double your muscle growth

Dr. Jacob Wilson, who used to write for Iron Man when we worked there, recently performed a study with a technique we have recommended over the years—stretch holds, or Stat-X.

Dr. Wilson calls it “intraset stretching.” In his study, the subjects who included intraset stretching DOUBLED muscle thickness compared to those who did not use it. Amazing. [Read more…]

Stretch Overload: Your Mass Gains Will Explode

Q: You’ve mentioned an animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle mass increase after only a month of stretch workouts. That’s truly incredible. Is there more info? How do I duplicate those stretch procedures in my workouts to get that kind of muscle growth?

A: We refer to that animal study by Antonio and Gonyea in many of our X-Rep e-books, but the most extensive analysis was in X-Rep Update #1. Here’s a quote from Jose Antonio, Ph.D., from that e-book: [Read more…]

The Most Important Muscle-Building Exercises

Q: I know the big midrange exercises, like squats and presses, are most important for mass, but after that, do you think the stretch-position exercise or the contracted-position exercise is the best followup for extra muscle growth? The reason I ask is that I don’t have a lot of time to train, so I’m going to do the Ultimate Exercise for each bodypart [identified in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book] and one more, either stretch or contracted, whichever you say will give me the most growth.

A: Interesting dilemma, but both the stretch- and contracted-position exercises are important for different reasons. Each triggers growth along different pathways (but there is an easy solution to your problem, as you’ll see)… [Read more…]