MASS FACTOR #2 - Bump Out Your Walls

MASS FACTOR #2 - Bump Out Your Walls Now it's time to look at what's holding your muscles IN and keeping them from growing to their true potential...and that is fascia. Fascia is essentially strong sheets of connective tissue that enclose your muscles (it's in a lot of other places, too, but we're going to focus only on the stuff around your muscles). I like to describe it as a pillowcase of connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and keeps them in position while assisting in transferring force. So how does fascia fit in with our house? Well, imagine that this fascia is actually the outside walls of your house. The outside walls are stronger than the interior walls because they have to help support the structure of the house. Unfortunately for muscle growth, fascia pretty much has the tensile strength of steel. That means anything you do WITHIN a workout is most likely not going to have much of an effect on fascia. Stretching the fascia is not going to give your muscles "room to grow." There is a practice known as "Fascial Stretching," the premise of which is to fill the muscle with blood (via training) then stretch that muscle HARD in attempt to loosen up the fascia and give the muscles room to grow. And I'll be honest with you, I USED to think that was possible but I've since changed my mind. Essentially, I think that fascial stretching has it backwards...I don't think the stretch necessarily gives the muscle more room to grow. I think the muscle grows FIRST, which then puts constant pressure on the fascia to expand. Fascia is such tough tissue that I don't think a short duration stretch can have that much of an impact on it (maybe a little, but you really have to be comfortable with discomfort in order to endure the stretching necessary to do it). I believe it's more the continuous long-term stretch placed by a growing muscle inside of it that causes the adaptation and expansion. Fascia does expand...over time, but it's not like stretching a muscle. It's more like trying to stretch a tough sheet of canvas. If you pull on the canvas for a few minutes really hard, it won't stretch. But if you string up the canvas tightly then put a big rock in the middle of it, the weight of that rock will slowly cause the canvas to stretch where the rock is. This makes the case for using training and eating techniques that flood the muscles with nutrients and water over and above what they normally store. The carb loading, calorie cycling, creatine use, along with the very high-volume training we're doing in the program puts a lot of blood in a muscle then keeps it there. Glycogen supercompensation resulting from that high-volume training and carb loading can cause storage of 120% or more of glycogen beyond normal 100% capacity). This puts continous long-term expansion pressure on the fascia and THIS, I believe, is the best way to achieve fascial expansion. Essentially, it's a change in perspective...instead of thinking of fascial stretching as an "acute" technique that you do for short periods, you think of fascial stretching more systemically...using food, training and supplements to stretch the fascia over a period of days and weeks. THAT, I believe, is the most effective way to stretch the fascia. Now, going to back to WHY you'd want the fascia to stretch, if you want bigger muscles, fascia DOES need to expand. Fascia is like a tight pair of jeans around your muscles. And the best way to stretch out a tight pair of jeans is not to squat down once or twice and call it a day but to WEAR them regularly so you achieve the long-term expansion you're looking for. We will accomplish this in the "Mad Scientist Muscle" program using high-volume training and carb cycling techniques to force massive amounts of blood into the muscles for long periods. You'll fill up those muscles, create a powerful stimulus for muscle growth, then FORCE the fascia to expand because of the continuous pressure of the growing muscles inside the fascia.