In this week's episode of the Discover Strength Podcast, I had the distinct pleasure of being joined by a young Ph.D. candidate from McMaster University in Canada, Derrick Van Every. Derrick is one of the brightest minds in the field of exercise science research, so it's no surprise he completed his Master's Degree from Lehman College in New York, under the advisement of Dr. Brad Schoenfeld. He's currently pursuing his Doctorate under the great tutelage of former podcast guest and head of the McMaster University Protein Research Lab, Dr. Stuart Phillips.

Derrick joined us today to discuss a recently published paper on the efficacy of inter-set stretching on measures of hypertrophy (HERE). The paper, part of his thesis while at Lehman College, looked at the potential benefits of loaded inter-set stretching (stretching in between sets of an exercise) and the potential for increasing muscle size and strength in the calf muscles (of the leg in particular).

We talk about the study design and the interesting application to current strength and conditioning recommendations for muscle growth. While loaded inter-set stretching is a relatively new area of research, there has long been anecdotal and even some clinical research supporting stretching between sets or post-set in the targeted muscle group of the exercise for increases in hypertrophy.

An example of this would be stretching your pecs (chest) after performing a set of chest flys. What made this study unique is they kept the participants under load in the stretched position, instead of having them self-administer the stretch. In the chest fly example, this would mean keeping your arms loaded in the stretch in the machine with weight in between sets, as opposed to stretching your chest with your hand against the wall.

While it's too early to make definitive recommendations, this is certainly something worth at least trying in your own workouts. There seems to be no negatives (at least to hypertrophy) and potentially some small to moderate upside. Keep an eye out for more great research from Derrick and the labs at both Lehman and McMaster.

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