Importance of stretching the fascia for Growth?

[DrewZ]

How important is stretching the Fascia for growth?
What are your favorite ways to go about doing it?

Static stretching,
Active stretching,
Deep tissue massage, etc...?

[davesah1]

getting a stupid pump in the gym works.

[Times Roman]

I've seen little guys (5'6" or so) that are very well developed, and their muscles bunch up like knots because there is no real way to stretch, since bone length is too short.

in fact, there is this one bloke in the gym I'm thinking of. he grew massively in the last six months. His traps look like one of those synthol youtube videos where the jamacan with the gold chain is dancing showing off his shit. You know which one I'm talking about. His muscles seriously look like they need a good stretching out.

[DrewZ]

I've seen little guys (5'6" or so) that are very well developed, and their muscles bunch up like knots because there is no real way to stretch, since bone length is too short.

in fact, there is this one bloke in the gym I'm thinking of. he grew massively in the last six months. His traps look like one of those synthol youtube videos where the jamacan with the gold chain is dancing showing off his shit. You know which one I'm talking about. His muscles seriously look like they need a good stretching out.

I have seen that, it looks so WEIRD!

I am one of those short guys, haha.

but I have certain areas that are lagging behind like we all do.
Glutes a little bit but they are coming around, mainly chest.

I was wondering if foam rolling, deep tissue or any of that might help?

Perhaps I'm training wrong.

I don't get a great chest pump when I do chest, I feel it more in my arms.

Should I lower the weight and go for higher reps on some chest exercises?

[Times Roman]

I have seen that, it looks so WEIRD!

I am one of those short guys, haha.

but I have certain areas that are lagging behind like we all do.
Glutes a little bit but they are coming around, mainly chest.

I was wondering if foam rolling, deep tissue or any of that might help?

Perhaps I'm training wrong.

I don't get a great chest pump when I do chest, I feel it more in my arms.

Should I lower the weight and go for higher reps on some chest exercises?

lower the weight, focus on your contractions and your extensions. If you don't feel that particular muscle group you are working on heat up in about half the reps in your set, you might be doing it wrong.

[marcus300]

I have seen that, it looks so WEIRD!

I am one of those short guys, haha.

but I have certain areas that are lagging behind like we all do.
Glutes a little bit but they are coming around, mainly chest.

I was wondering if foam rolling, deep tissue or any of that might help?

Perhaps I'm training wrong.

I don't get a great chest pump when I do chest, I feel it more in my arms.

Should I lower the weight and go for higher reps on some chest exercises?

Where are your elbows when your doing your pressing? are they close to your sides when you press?
how are you training your chest? reps sets what style?
have you tried pre exhausted so you do the isolation movements first which will help with more chest stimulation on the compound movements.

You don't want to lower the weight until you find out what the problem is because it could be just form, elbow position, training style, not training hard enough and could be too light.

[Java Man]

I stretch my chest while training it. Usually by grabbing both sides of a doorway or squat track and leaning in until I feel it stretching then hold it for a minute or so. I doo that at home a lot too.

If your arms feel like they're getting most of the work while working chest, I'd say lower the weight for awhile and try different elbow placement until you find where your pecs are feeling it the most. Learn to recruit them and also to release shoulders and triceps as much as possible, then focus that feeling when you increase the weight again. Use dumbbells instead of a bar. It's easier to isolate pecs with minor adjustments to arm position than when constrained by the linear plane of a barbell. My chest used to be concave. Kids used to call me string bean and chicken boy. Over the years it has been a mental scar apparently because it's almost 50" now. Makes the rest of me look small, but the way I've learned to really focus the pecs makes it grow better than any of my other parts. I assume... I'll never be able to answer that question.

[DrewZ]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Marcus:
When DB pressing I try to keep my elbows lower on my torso and tighter to my body.
At full extension I tilt my wrists so that my thumbs go upward bringing the dumbbells closer together, I feel the contraction better when I do this.

Here's my last chest workout in the order I did them.

Dumbbell Press(INCLINE):
+ set 1 - 15 reps - light weight warmup
+ set 2 - 10 reps - moderate weight not to failure
+ set 3 - 10 reps - heavy weight, failed to put up for 11
+ set 4 - 7 reps - heavy weight, long negative rep finish

Dumbbell Press(Flat)
+ set 1 - 9 reps - failing on 10
+ set 2 - 8 reps - failing on 9

Dumbbell Flys (Incline Bench)
+ set 1 - 15 reps - moderate weight
+ set 2 - 15 reps - moderate weight

Dumbbell Flys (Flat Bench)
+ set 1 - 20 reps - moderate weight
+ set 2 - 20 reps - moderate weight - failing on 21

Smith Bench Press (Incline Overhead Wide grip)
+ set 1 - 10 reps failing on 11
+ set 2 - 8 reps failing on 9
+ set 3 - 12 reps - lowered weight, went to failure.

Cable Fly/crossover (high)
+ set 1 - 12 reps
+ set 2 - 10 reps to failure

Cable Fly/crossover (low)
+ set 1 - 8 reps failure
+ set 2 - 9 reps - lowered weight - failure

Finished up with 2 tricep exercises.

Later today I am doing chest, will implement advise and report back

Appreciate the help!
Drew

[gearbox]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Marcus:
When DB pressing I try to keep my elbows lower on my torso and tighter to my body.
At full extension I tilt my wrists so that my thumbs go upward bringing the dumbbells closer together, I feel the contraction better when I do this.

Here's my last chest workout in the order I did them.

Dumbbell Press(INCLINE):
+ set 1 - 15 reps - light weight warmup
+ set 2 - 10 reps - moderate weight not to failure
+ set 3 - 10 reps - heavy weight, failed to put up for 11
+ set 4 - 7 reps - heavy weight, long negative rep finish

Dumbbell Press(Flat)
+ set 1 - 9 reps - failing on 10
+ set 2 - 8 reps - failing on 9

Dumbbell Flys (Incline Bench)
+ set 1 - 15 reps - moderate weight
+ set 2 - 15 reps - moderate weight

Dumbbell Flys (Flat Bench)
+ set 1 - 20 reps - moderate weight
+ set 2 - 20 reps - moderate weight - failing on 21

Smith Bench Press (Incline Overhead Wide grip)
+ set 1 - 10 reps failing on 11
+ set 2 - 8 reps failing on 9
+ set 3 - 12 reps - lowered weight, went to failure.

Cable Fly/crossover (high)
+ set 1 - 12 reps
+ set 2 - 10 reps to failure

Cable Fly/crossover (low)
+ set 1 - 8 reps failure
+ set 2 - 9 reps - lowered weight - failure

Finished up with 2 tricep exercises.

Later today I am doing chest, will implement advise and report back

Appreciate the help!
Drew

that is to many exercises for you chest. if you did db press to the max you would not have much left over for flies.
you do not need flies and cable flies in the same routine.
I would read Marcus's thread in the lounge. It is all about lifting HARD, HEAVY,SMART, and getting RESULTS.

[DrewZ]

that is to many exercises for you chest. if you did db press to the max you would not have much left over for flies.
you do not need flies and cable flies in the same routine.
I would read Marcus's thread in the lounge. It is all about lifting HARD, HEAVY,SMART, and getting RESULTS.

Agreed, once I wrote that out on here I can see that's too much.
Looking back on my logs I tend to finish with cable flys, and rarely ever do DB fly's - I think last week might had been the only time I did both.

Reading some of the workouts in Marcus's log, I'm unclear with some terms used

Sometimes I'll see 3 warm up sets, then a working set to failure & sometimes with drop sets.

For Instance - what would 3 warm up sets of DB Incline Press be exactly?
Also what are feeler sets?

I'm familiar with drop sets, super sets, & giant sets.

[almostgone]

Agreed, once I wrote that out on here I can see that's too much.
Looking back on my logs I tend to finish with cable flys, and rarely ever do DB fly's - I think last week might had been the only time I did both.

Reading some of the workouts in Marcus's log, I'm unclear with some terms used

Sometimes I'll see 3 warm up sets, then a working set to failure & sometimes with drop sets.

For Instance - what would 3 warm up sets of DB Incline Press be exactly?
Also what are feeler sets?

I'm familiar with drop sets, super sets, & giant sets.

Feeler set= a set done to get an estimate of your working set weight.

[marcus300]

Agreed, once I wrote that out on here I can see that's too much.
Looking back on my logs I tend to finish with cable flys, and rarely ever do DB fly's - I think last week might had been the only time I did both.

Reading some of the workouts in Marcus's log, I'm unclear with some terms used

Sometimes I'll see 3 warm up sets, then a working set to failure & sometimes with drop sets.

For Instance - what would 3 warm up sets of DB Incline Press be exactly?
Also what are feeler sets?

I'm familiar with drop sets, super sets, & giant sets.

You need to start at the beginning and read the whole thread, everything will come clear if you do that because everything is explained. I could repost it all in here but its been reposted many times in my thread with detailed explanations of HIT training or my style of HIT training.

[DrewZ]

Will do, thanks guys

[Lovemiami]

Thanks very good thread