Can static stretching build muscle? This new study reveals potential benefits and limitations of static stretching exercises on muscle growth and range of motion.
Overview
- What did they test? The authors examined if static stretching promotes muscle hypertrophy and improves joint range of motion in healthy adults.
- What did they find? The effect of static stretching on muscle growth was unclear. However, specific factors like training status, number of stretching exercises, and duration led to a higher likelihood that hypertrophy was induced.
- What does it mean for you? Static stretching could be incorporated into a training program to improve range of motion. It’s unlikely that stretching will cause much hypertrophy for most people.
What’s the problem?
Static stretching is commonly included in training programs, primarily to enhance flexibility by increasing range of motion or serve as part of a warm-up. Its potential role in promoting muscle hypertrophy is still a topic of considerable debate. While resistance training is widely recognized for building muscle, animal studies suggest that chronic stretching can also stimulate muscle growth by inducing muscle protein synthesis pathways, activating satellite cells, and thus causing muscle hypertrophy 1. Despite these findings, only one study has directly measured MPS processes in humans 2, showing no effect, but a growing number of studies have focused on measuring muscle size, which is what most people are interested in.
Several reviews and meta-analyses have been written on static stretching and muscle hypertrophy in the past few years. In a recent narrative review, Nunes et al. (2023) concluded that passive, low-intensity stretching most likely does not promote muscle hypertrophy or changes in muscle architecture after reviewing 10 studies. They also suggested that stretching performed with significant muscle strain—such as when it is loaded or incorporated between strength sets—may have the potential to stimulate muscle growth 3.
A meta-analysis from 2023 analyzed 19 studies and found that training results in minimal increases in fascicle length at rest and slight increases during stretching, with high volumes and intensities promoting increases in fascicle length and muscle size 4. More recently, Warneke et al. (2024) found a trivial positive effect of stretching on hypertrophy when reviewing 42 studies. Specifically, they found stretching durations of ≥15 minutes, intervention periods of >6 weeks, and training frequencies of ≥5 times per week induced the most hypertrophy 5. Taken together, these studies suggest that static stretching can cause hypertrophy, but only if done for long durations at high intensities, and for more than a few weeks. The current study adds to the literature by using a novel statistical approach and incorporating training status and sex as subgroup analyses.
Purpose
The primary purpose was to determine the effects of chronic static stretching on muscle hypertrophy and fascicle length. The secondary purpose was to determine if static stretching improves joint range of motion.
