“The benefits of stretching are enormous. Stretching can increase your strength by 10%. It is a lot. The man explains that ‘when you lift a weight your muscles contract. And after the workout the muscles remain contracted for some time. The following restoration of the muscles’ length is what recovery is. Until the muscle has restored its length, it has not recovered. Hence he who does not stretch his muscles slows down the recuperation process and retards his gains.’ Besides tension and relaxation are two sides of the same coin, ‘if the muscle forgets how to lengthen, it will contract more poorly. And that is stagnation of strength.’” -Pavel Tsatsouline (From, “365 Days With Self-Discipline”)