When you think about building muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. Most skinny guys have the misconception that stretching and muscle building mixes just as well as Jessica Simpson and Albert Einstein But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in gaining muscle mass?

No room to grow

Every single one of your muscles are held in place by a envelope of tough connective tissue known as fascia. The fascia envelopes your muscle tissue limiting the space your muscle has to occupy. This results in a limitation of muscle growth. Consider your muscles. You train them and you feed them properly and they want to grow but they don't. Something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Your fascia is so tough that it will not allow your muscles to grow unless it expands. One of the greatest bodybuilding scientists, D.J. Millward, coined this phenomenon as the bag expansion theory. Or simply, like trying to stuff a large suitcase into a small suitcase. Eat all you want and train all you want, your muscles will not grow until you expand the connective tissue surrounding your muscles.

Fascial Stretching equals new room to grow!

Nick Nilsson, President of Better U says, “The primary way stretching can help promote muscle growth is through the expansion of the fascia (the connective tissue sheath that surrounds a muscle). Stretching a muscle strongly while it is pumped up and full of blood can help expand the fascia giving the muscle more room to grow more easily. This type of stretching was pioneered by John Parillo and is known as fascial stretching.”

During your next workout stretch the targeted muscle for at least 20-30 seconds to allow the fascia to be stimulated effectively. Stretching like this is only effective when you have a huge pump because you must give the fascia a reason to expand. One set of hard stretching after each set you do during your workout will have a powerful effect on the size of your muscles and give them further reason to grow.

Nilsson proves his point further, “The calves are an excellent example of fascia limiting muscle growth - the calves are known as difficult muscles to develop and, by no coincidence, they are also very well-encased with connective tissue/fascia.”

Regular stretching will make it easier to build muscle. It's tough enough for a skinny guy to build muscle without the connective tissue limitations. Start introducing some intense fascial stretching in between sets while your muscles are pumped to the max and this will give your muscles room to grow – get ready to watch them grow more explosively!