In previous articles we discussed whether or not it’s possible to gain muscle without using weights. The conclusion we reached was that it’s possible to tear muscle fibres through flexing but not nearly on as large a scale as scale as lifting heavy weights. This means that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to have any serious muscle gains by just flexing but it doesn’t mean that flexing can’t be used in conjunction with your weight program to maximize gains.

So why would anyone want to incorporate flexing into a weight training routine? The answer is quite simple, one of the main reasons you lift weights is to restrict blood flow to the muscle for a short period of time. Once you put the weight down the blood rushes back in and makes your muscles feel larger and pumped up. This and the tearing of muscle fibres is the reason why weight training causes you to get stronger and larger. Flexing also restricts blood flow to the muscle and can actually be used in conjunction with a weight training routine to see bigger and faster results.

A quick Google search will show that there are countless studies that have been done by the Japanese proving that consciously flexing muscles either before or after a workout can lead to larger and faster muscle gains. The researchers don’t exactly know why an increased restriction in blood flow works, but they theorize that it’s because it activates a glucose transport which creates an environment more conducive to muscle growth. For our purposes though it doesn’t really matter why it works, only that it works.

A great time to start implementing this is after your workout, as sort of a warm down exercise. There are several ways to go at it but here are a few common ones that you may want to try for yourself:

• Do the regular motions while flexing the muscle as hard as you can. This will cause a restriction in blood flow but also helps to feel how the muscle works and build the mind-muscle connection.
• Flex each muscle group as hard as you can for a minimum of 10 seconds. Arnold Schwarzenegger raved about this sort of exercise and called it iso-tension.
• Before you lift, flex all your muscles so that they are somewhat exhausted. This will allow you to do fewer reps and reach failure much quicker.
• In between weight exercises continue to hold tension on the muscle but without the weight. This will quickly make doing reps very difficult and will provide a noticeable increase in pump.

As you can see there are tons of different ways you can adapt flexing and incorporate it into your training routine. There’s scientific evidence in support of it and many successful body builders and martial arts practitioners advocate it. There’s literally no risk of injury and it makes a great warm down exercise. But I advise you not to take my word for it, try it and see for yourself.