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Muscles are not capable of performing at high levels of intensity unless they have been ‘warmed-up’ sufficiently. This is common knowledge amongst most serious bodybuilders. What isn’t such common knowledge, is that muscles should be warmed-up with the exact same exercise they are about to perform.

The ideal warm-up for any particular exercise is itself. The only truly effective warm-up exercise for the bench press is, in fact, the bench press. This simple secret often causes confusion. So, what’s the best way to warm-up before performing a workout? Definitely not with the use of power lifting techniques. Power lifting techniques are unnecessary and counter productive when trying to build muscle fast.

Let me explain. The warming-up process for competitive power lifting is designed for the single repetition lifts the competitor must perform. An individual who participates in a weightlifting competition is not interested in producing rapid increases in muscle size. Their primary concern is ensuring their strengthen muscles are warmed-up sufficiently to perform a series of single repetition lifts, without sustaining injury.

When performing single lifts, careful and deliberate warm-ups are critical. A maximum capacity lift attempted with a cold muscle exposes you to a very high risk of injury. In most cases, muscles that are not warmed-up, will not perform at all. So warming-up with the intended single lift exercise with a considerably lighter weight is the most common method used. In other words, they perform multiple sets to warm-up for the single attempt lift.

But, warming-up for competitive and Olympic weight lifting is one thing; warming-up for a muscle building routine is entirely different. Too many guys warm-up like a weightlifting competitors before starting their routines. Using lighter weights, they performs three to four additional sets of every exercise, insisting that it will lead to maximum muscle gains.

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.

But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Because fascia is so tough, it doesn’t allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won’t change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.

The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

The solution: stretching.

Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space.

By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.

The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.

When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it.

Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren’t pumped, just stretch normally.

You can find instructions for stretching at: http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Info/Stretching1.htm

One set of hard stretching after each set you do for a muscle group, besides the obvious benefits of increased flexibility, can have an incredible effect on the size of your muscles and their further ability to grow.

About The Author

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook “The Best Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of” at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.