The view of fascial practitioners is that stretch is meant to maintain fascial integrity. Exercise, daily activities, poor postural positions, etc lead to fascial shortening, and in the case of increased exercise, fascia shortens and thickens. it does this to protect itself, as if it is over-stressed it may become thinner and weak and be liable to tearing, so it is designed to thicken. This can be seen also in repetetive injuries, where what we think is scarring is actually natural thickening, just like fractured bone becomes thicker and stronger than before. The idea of stretching daily is to ensure shortening does not occur, as fascia is an adaptable tissue. If we sit in chairs all day, eventually our fascia will adapt to the shape of the position it is left in for long periods, hence we become tight across the front of the hips, and across the back of the knees...as a start.

If there is tightness from fascial shortening, one cannot stretch to release this as this is an adaptive change in the structure of the fascial fibres, so again stretching will only maintain what is there.

As for hypertrophy in muscles, the myofascial sheaths are designed to fit around a muscle to protect it, give it strength and shape, and to prevent it from being overstretched, however, the genetic make-up of eah individual will govern how big we grow...normally without extra exercise, and thus this is the blueprint of the body. Excessive building of muscles can overstretch the fascial sheaths, thus rendering them weakened, and this may cause them to thicken again. There is only so much space a muscle has naturally in its sheath. Once this space is violated the muscle/fascial unit is in jeopardy of injury. My personal belief is that if we build muscle to the point where we begin to lose flexibility and ROM then this is the personal limit of an individual and further muscle building should cease, and can thus be maintained, without jeopardising ROM. Stiffness and weakness go hand in hand, flexibility and strength do too. Look what happens to the body builders when they stop...loose connective tissue/flab, wrinkles etc. Fascia cannot tone up again, it is inelastic tissue. Have you ever tried to restore cling film once it has been overstretched? This is chronic damage to the muscles protective unit.

In my mind flexibility isthe key to preventing injury, not muscle bulk, as the ability to give in to injury stresses will give the body more of a chance to 'ride' most of the mechanisms of injury, bar the direct traumatic types. Spending most of the week in the gym does not seem to stop the injury figures in games like rugby, and funnily enough it seems that a lot of the injuries are non-contact...eg hamstring strains, groin injuries, back strains, some of them occuring in the gym. More time should be spent getting sport fit not gym fit. For some reason there is a push for building strength around old injuries as if to say this will prevent it from happening again, yet no concern is given to the flexibility of the fascial tissues.

More flexibility, less bulk, less injury???