i've previously discussed if flexing between sets could enhance muscle growth concluding that overall it did not seem to help build more muscle but what about stretching in between sets this isn't a new idea legendary bodybuilder frank zane states he used to stretch the primary muscle group worked in an exercise for 15 seconds between sets but what does the current research say on stretching in between sets can it help build more muscle a study by evangelista and colleagues aimed to determine just this 29 untrained men were assigned to either a stretching group or a non-stretching group
both groups trained the same exercises the bench press seated row seated dip machine biceps curl leg extension and leg curl each for four sets of eight to twelve reps each set taken to failure twice per week for eight weeks the non-stretching group rested 90 seconds between sets the stretching group also rested 90 seconds between sets but during 30 of those seconds they held a static stretch between sets of the bench press they performed a stretch for the chest and front delts between sets of the seated row they performed a stretch for the lats between sets
of the seated dip machine they performed a stretch for the triceps between sets of the biceps curl they performed a stretch for the biceps between sets of the leg extension they performed a stretch for the quadriceps between sets of the leg curl they performed a stretch for the hamstrings as a note all stretches were performed with the maximum range of motion participants could achieve pain-free thickness of the elbow flexors which would have included the biceps bracha and brachialis triceps brachii rectus femoris and vastus lateralis was measured before and after the a weeks for both groups
although there were no statistically significant differences in elbow flexor triceps and rectus femoris thickness between both groups it is evident that the results do slightly favor the stretching group a longer study or more participants could result in these differences being significant for vastus lateralis thickness the stretching group did experience statistically significant greater increases compared to the non-stretching group so overall i would say this study suggests that stretching in between sets may indeed help build more muscle the reasons as to why stretching in between sets helps build more muscle in this study are not clear and
i think much more research would be needed to confirm these results and identify the potential mechanisms anyway it's important to consider the context of this evangelista study when interpreting the results the participants were untrained training responses do differ between trained and untrained individuals so it's not clear whether these results would apply to trained individuals the participants also held the stretches with a maximum range of motion they could achieve pain-free this is probably a noteworthy point as previous research by junior and colleagues found that performing a quadricep stretch that was painful for the participants before leg
extensions resulted in less vastus lateralis growth compared to performing only the leg extensions although this was stretching before training it's very possible that performing intense stretching in between sets could reduce muscle growth too furthermore the participants in their evangelista and colleague study held the stretches for 30 seconds holding stretches for longer than this could be counterproductive for instance seattle's and colleagues found that stretching the quadriceps for 60 seconds resulted in greater decreases in quadriceps force output compared to stretching for 30 seconds this more pronounced force loss with 60 seconds of stretching could mean the quadriceps
receive less of a hypertrophic stimulus though i am guessing here and future research would be needed to validate this idea lastly at this current moment this is the only published research paper to have assessed the effects of stretching in between sets on muscle hypertrophy now i did actually find details about an unpublished paper by silva and colleagues assessing how stretching in between sets impacts hypertrophy this paper was presented at a conference only in summary here are the details 24 trained men were assigned to either a stretching or non-stretching group both groups performed four sets of
eight to twelve reps of calf raises on the leg press machine during the rest intervals the stretching group allowed the leg press machine weight to stretch their gastrocnemius so i think they had their feet dorsiflexed on the leg press machine here the results showed that the stretching group experienced greater increases in gastrocnemius thickness compared to the non-stretching group although these results are interesting especially as this study was supposedly done on trained individuals these results should be taken cautiously simply because the study was never published and peer reviewed to wrap up the evangelista and colleague study
provides us with evidence that stretching in between sets could help build more muscle albeit for untrained individuals ultimately regardless of your training experience you may wish to experiment with stretching in between sets and see how it works out for you of course it's going to be difficult if not impossible to actually figure out if it's helping you build more muscle but if you enjoy it and you ensure stretches are held for 30 seconds or less and at a comfortable intensity i think at the very least there would be no downside but again this is me
just guessing based on a single study additionally you could implement stretching in between sets for only a few select movements or you could have intermittent training blocks where you implement stretching in between sets at the end of the day i really do hope more papers assess this topic especially in trained individuals so we can truly find out if stretching between sets enhances hypertrophy if any new papers come out i do definitely plan to make videos on [Music] them
