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EricT · 03-11-2006, 09:26 AM

I've been experimenting with some of these stretches to see if I could find a better way. Most of them good the way they are, but here are a few things I have been doing.

Chest: I have been doing the pullover option that the JW article mentions as well. A pullover stretch in the cross-bench position is a great torso and chest stretch. After a full-body workout or abs this is a good idea. If you straighten or slightly bend your arms you'll get a slightly different stretch. You can get a good stetch in the abdominal wall this way too. Of course, the flyes are my main chest stretch.

Biceps: No complaints about the bicep stretch as is. However, swinging the hips to one side or the other (slowly) and holding improves the intensity and seems to get the "outside" area of the bicep better. Of course this is unilaterall so you have to switch it off.

Back: The back is by far the most difficult to get a good stretch. It's more than one muscle and you can't stretch them all effectively at once. A few observations: At the end of a pulldown set, while holding on to the bar in the stretched position lean forward slightly and force your neck down, hard. This gives a good stretch of the upper, inner rhomboid area (I got the idea for this from that Venuto article of Anuj's that I "loved" so much, thanx Anuj).

Also, at the end of a pulldown set, in the same stretched position and a fairly close grip, lean back slightly, the idea being to lift the stack slightly and have it pull against your lats. With the knees still locked, swing your hips to one side of the other, effecting a sort of sideways bend in your torso. Do it until you feel the painful stretch in your lats and you'll get the idea. You'll be able to lift your butt slightly and use your bodyweight, being stretched now from two directions if you do it right. Don't get me wrong, a dead hang with maybe some weight added is great, but this gives me more control and allows my to increase the depth and intensity of the stretch more easily.

Another idea, maybe after barbell rows or some such, is to grab the loaded barbell in the lowered row position with a very close grip and let it hang, relaxing your back and feeling the muscle stretch outwards horizontally. Just do it and you'll get the feel for it. Keep you lower back "naturall". You can do this unilaterally also, with heavy loaded dumbells.

The general stretch that I am using is more or less a yoga stretch. I say more or less because I don't know if I am doing it in the classically correct way. Sit down of the floor with you legs straight out if front of you. Bend one knee and bring the foot up towards your buttocks, keeping it flat on the floor. Now cross that foot over you straight leg. Place the elbow opposite your bent leg on the outside of your bent knee and push. Hard. Concentrating on getting a stretch in your back. This allows you to use your own strentgh to make the stretch as painful as you want. And its a good overall loosening stretch for the back. This obviously doesn't allow for added weight and a progression in that sense but it's a good stretch and painful enough in its own right once you get the feel for it.

Most of these, once you hit the right position, theres no guess work involved.

Quads: With all due respect to its originators, I hate the quad stretch above. After a brutal leg workout, I want to stretch the quads, not play a game of limbo. I will say, however, that it is probably a little more healthy way for the knee than my way. What I do is use a racked barbell or something to hold onto and bring the end of a bench up in front of it. Facing the barbell, I hold onto it so the the end of the bench is against the back of my thighs. Bend one (or both if you choose) foot behind you and hook it on top of the bench. Now lean back while forcing your knee down. I then place one hand behind me so that I can lean back as far as possible, forcing the bent knee downward all the while. The hand is not there for support, just balance. I allow my body weight to work against the quad. Try it, you'll feel it. You can do both legs at once, but I prefer to do it unilaterally. It takes longer of course but I feel I get a better stretch in each quad. If you have a training partner, have them push down on your knee...

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These are just my ideas. I hope they help, though.

The only other thing I will say about the fascia stretching in general is the same thing I said before when an article was posted. When I see words like extreme and excrutiating I have to throw up a red flag. I understand why these words are used, to get the kind of stretch they are talking about, it needs to be painful as hell. I'm used to stretching and have a very high pain threshold so I have to push extremely hard to make it seem "excruciating" even if I have a full blood pump.

So that begs the question: at what point am I just making the fascia stretches effective and at what point have I taken leave of my common sense?

Owing to the point that I have lots of stretching experience and also that I have actually injured myself though overzealous forced stretches, I know the difference in the kind of pain. It would be hard to describe. You have to learn it yourself. The only point I would make is the the pain should not be extemely sharp and seemingly concentrated to one area (say just the tendon).

For people who have never bothered to stretch at all, I would recommend moving into this slowly and getting to know the basic static stretches (the kind they taught you in gym class). And getting a "feel" for stretching in general. And above all, just use basic common sense. I've been using these and I think they work great. My chest alone seems to have gotten a sudden surge in growth. And I push them to the limit. But there is a fine line between "the limit" and stupidity.