Stretching and massages

Yesterday was a tough day – the culmination of 2 hard workouts and a calorie deficit really caught up with me.

Sunday was chest day. The workout was hard. Lots of squeezing and stretching and we got to throw the gyms new 55kg dumbbells around too. I was really in the zone so biceps after chest was a real intense slog. Everything in the 12-16 rep range.

Monday was back. I am hitting my back real hard, particularly lats. I don’t think I have any issue with back thickness – in fact I think I have a very thick back and this is one of my strong points. With this in mind I am putting a lot of focus on hitting my lats. As I have a blocky waist and wide hips bones this should help to provide that v-taper look and therefore provide the illusion of having a smaller waist.

So those were the two workouts….. now last night. I could barely stay awake at 6:30pm – In fact I could have just gone to be at this point! My outer pecs were real sore from Sunday and I was having twitches/spasms on my left pec. My traps and back were really sore from Monday mornings workout – my neck was getting real stiff and no amount of stretching seemed to be helping anything. Fortunately my lovely wife, despite being 39 weeks pregnant and fairly immobile, gave me a 20 minute massage to alleviate some of the muscle soreness. Needless to say there was a fair old bit of crunching, cracking and some moaning and groaning to boot as she worked her way through some of the knots that had built up over the last week or two of training. And this brings me on to a point I think many people overlook when it comes to training – the recovery process and additional techniques that can be utilised to allow for a speedier recovery and increased muscle growth.

Massage is often seen as being a bit airy fairy, but if utilised correctly and routinely I have found it to be very beneficial indeed. Now I have to emphasise the point that at the start of my training career I was of the opinion that massages were for pussys and that manly men who lifted weights didn’t need them – soreness was a good thing and should be put up with and accepted as a bi-product of a productive workout. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!

When the weights weren’t overly heavy, as they tend not to be in the earlier days of ones life odyssey of gym work, massage is probably nice but not a necessity. As weights get heavier and training techniques are fine tuned you can literally feel your muscles resetting themselves in odd uncomfortable positions in the 24-48 hours after a workout. A prime example is traps. Do a load of high volume trap work or pump sets, and heavy shrugs (I’m talking 120kg plus) and it literally feels like an invisible piece of string is pinning your traps up to your ears. It’s just a damn uncomfortable feeling and if you roll your shoulders a little you get some incredible crunching noises. This is where massage comes in to its own. It breaks down the lactic acid and blood stuck in muscle tissue, whilst at the same time putting heat into the muscle and very quickly allows the muscle to relax. The benefit of taking out all that lactic acid and blood is that it allows fresh blood flow into the area, and with fresh blood (provided your diet and supplement regime is optimal) comes fresh nutrients and all the goodies required to maximise repair and growth. What you need is a good sports massage. A namby pamby rub and tickle is going to do absolutely nothing – it should hurt! Golden tip – if you find yourself drifting off to sleep it isn’t hard enough. Keep shopping around until you find a therapist that wants to hurt you – most good therapists will take to the challenge and enjoy causing you pain – also ensure that you tell them what you want and where you need them to concentrate – often your grunts, shrieks and groans will be enough to encourage them to concentrate on found problem areas, but don’t be afraid to provide feedback if you feel they aren’t going hard enough. Expect to pay anywhere from £40-£200 depending on massage time and location.

Another benefit of massage is fascia manipulation. Muscle is important, but it’s enclosed in a tight bag known as the fascia. The fascia is very strong and fairly tight and essentially allows muscles to hold their shape. The fascia does have a negative impact on muscle growth in that a muscle can’t grow if it is being restricted in size by the fascia. Cue the need to try and manipulate/stretch the fascia to allow more room for muscle to grow. Massage is one technique that can help manipulate the fascia, but there are two further techniques, that when combined correctly, can lead to a whole new world of muscle growth; fascia stretching and pumping (also known as dc training). The idea is twofold in that.

1. You use weighted stretches (normally at the end of your compound lifts) to stretch out the fascia. 

2. After stretching out the fascia you use isolation moves to really pump up the muscle

The approach should work in that stretching the fascia weakens it, even causing micro-tearing and then pumping the muscle allows it to stretch the fascia further and to cause more micro-tears. The fascia is now stretched out a little – there is a little more room for muscles to grow. Any micro-tears mean the fascia, like a muscle, has to repair itself a little bigger (natural adaption) – there is now even more room for muscle to grow.

Now there are some pitfalls with fascia stretches. Pick a weight that is too heavy, or over stretch and you are just going to get injured – hello muscle atrophy! In most instances only body weight or light dumbbells are required. Holding stretches for 30-60 seconds will be excruciatingly painful and uncomfortable– wimps need not apply or attempt!

Here is an example of a chest fascia stretch/pump routine I utilised on Saturday after hitting all my pressing compound movements: Take 2 dumbbells (I think I used 12kg) – lay in an incline flye position. Now at the bottom of the movement where you get the stretch – that’s your starting position. Let the dumbbells stretch out in that you should find yourself stretching out more and more with those dumbbells getting ever closer to the floor. Do this for 30-60 seconds (30 seconds is a good starting time). I went straight from this stretch into cable x-overs at 15-20 reps concentrating on a hard long squeeze of the chest and getting a real good pump. I performed this stretch and pump method 3 times. My chest still hurts (in a good way) - over 48 hours after the fact.

Right back to me! You may recall if you read my last blog update that I loaded on 8lbs during my Saturday skipload/reefed. I did question how long it would take to come off too as it’s the most I can recall putting on during a reefed! As of yesterday morning I was down 2lb. As of this morning I was down 7lb – yes that means that I lost 5lb in my sleep last night! 1lb more to go to baseline tomorrow. I’ve also decided to tweak my diet this week. 2 main aspects are

• Further reduction in calories by 200kcals per day. In terms of macros this is a percentage ratio of PRO/CHO/FAT 20/20/60 or in kcals 40/40/120. Not a drastic difference, but it should be enough to continue fat loss at a rate I am comfortable with.

• Manipulation of post-cardio meal. This was a PRO/FAT meal but I have dropped FAT. Protein has been upped from 50g in this meal to 60g to bring calories up to compensate for fat removal. The methodology around this is that cardio utilises fat as a fuel source and that by only ingesting pure protein afterwards I am extending the EPOC window and allowing for fats released from cells during
cardio to be utilised as fuel for energy (because if you put fats into your body the body will use these instead of the fats released during exercise). The theory bodes well so we will see how the practical application holds up!