TweetDon’t stretch the muscle you’re working on.

July 14, 2011 by Charles Poliquin




Q: What’s your opinion on stretching between sets to relax a muscle—for example, doing a hamstring stretch between sets of hamstring curls?

A: Don’t stretch the muscle you’re working; instead, stretch the opposing—antagonist—muscle. So if you’re working the upper back, stretch the muscles of the chest.
The process of supersetting muscle pairs, such as the biceps with the triceps, relaxes the opposing muscle group. Often it’s not tension in the muscle being worked that prevents maximum muscular contractions but tension in the opposing muscle. If you stretch the quadriceps—the antagonist of the hamstrings—between sets of hamstring curls, you’ll increase your range of motion because you reduce muscle tension that can shorten the muscle.
Research on plyometrics suggests that the people who have better performance on explosive activities are those who can best relax the antagonist muscles during the movements involved. That’s common sense; after all, you can’t drive very fast if you are applying the brakes while pushing the gas.

TweetI'd say it's conditional... for instance, a person with extreme tight pecs and weak back will have trouble engaging pecs during sets to begin with. for those individuals, extra warm up sets alternated with some light rowing/external rotator work, and pec stretch may work beter. or simply doing chest/back superset maybe better for those individuals.