In regards to the first post:

I agree that fascia definitely plays an important and significant role in the capacity of a muscle to be stretched.
The second point in relation to the studies, I believe it is important to consider athletes or weight lifters as they represent a portion of the population with ‘non-normal’ muscle size, length, appearance. By this I mean that your average gym goer who happens to bench press day and night and has significant rounded shoulders is an ideal case of muscle shortening, and imbalance. Goldspink (1976) described that indeed muscle sarcomeres decrease in amount when muscles are chronically shortened, this is a significant factor to consider when examining as you mention long term stretch. Finally, the studies mentioned also refer to optimizing lifting performance or athletic performance, as opposed to rehabilitation specifically where stretching may indeed be useful if there is non-performance variable involved (eg. Fascia!).
Also, thanks for the added information about fascial stretch, and definitely agree with stretch to pain free end range of motion. I believe more information regarding the ‘75% of … sensory nerve[s]’ would have been useful and some information regarding the role of GTO and Muscle Spindles in relation to this.
Is fascia, which is capable of significant stretch, also capable of shortening? The tendon is a relatively ‘slow’ (I use that term loosely to describe its healing rate in relation to how much it is used) healing tissue, if tissues are allowed to shorten once again after stretch, what is the role of fascia in muscle shortening?

Next post:
Statement: “we are not stretching muscles DIRECTLY, but throught the action of stretching fascia”. I tend to agree with this, as Muscular Dystrophy is a prime example of what can go wrong when dystrophin is not present to connect muscle tissues to their surrounding fascia.

Response to ‘One thing you should consider’ post:
Why stretch if there is full range and all is well?
Probably depends on what type of flexibility we are talking about. Traditionally Yogi’s of the east would measure a person’s age based on the flexibility of an individual’s spine, as opposed to their chronological age. Is there are relationship between the two variables? There are tones of yoga classes, tones of subjects available for some studies me thinks. The thoracolumbar fascia is a significantly large fascia; I wonder whether flexibility of the back is important in terms of avoiding long term injury?

Would be good to get other’s opinions in regards, nice discussion!