Stretching

[James2]

Just looking for a little help with a peculiar case. I have this friend, and he has some issues stretching. He has read that the idea of becoming "musclebound" is a fallacy, and that people that claim that they are musclebound are really just inflexible.

However, this particular individual has problems with the following: With his elbow at his side, he can't touch his left shoulder with his left hand (same with the right) because his forearm runs into his bicep. He can't stretch his shoulder out because when he puts his arm across his chest and pulls, his arm runs into his pec (which is big), and doesn't allow the shoulder muscle to get any stretch. And, when he tries to stretch out his tricep, pulling all of his shoulder and pec and arm muscles together like that starts to choke him, and cut off blood to his brain, and still he gets no stretch along his tricep.

I was just wondering if anyone else had any experience with anything like this, and possibly had any information that I could pass along to my friend.

EDIT: I've been putting off posting this because it looks me look like a complete dingleberry, but I wasn't able to find ANY good info on the net, and I figured there'd be one or two people here who had an idea or two.

 

[LovelyLadyHumps]

Never heard of such a thing...is this a joke? If not, I don't have anything to offer besides saying that I found this post to be interesting

 

[James2]

not a joke

 

[LovelyLadyHumps]

Sounds like he should go to a doctor or maybe a chiropractor and see what they recommend. That doesn't sound normal to me. Is it a problem w/having short arms and muscles that are too big?

 

[James2]

Nope, not short arms, just really big muscles.

I'm just looking for alternate means of stretching that might be used for those that have the same sort of problem, regardless of if they are running into blocks of muscle or fat.

 

[maleficent]

I seriously don't have a clue but what if other muscles were developed to balance out the ones that are already big... i'm not sure what muscles those would be -but it's almost like some are overdeveloped and some are underdeveloped causig the problem.

But - send him to me -clearly he couldnt' fight off my advances

 

[Steve]

I've honestly never dealt with that. Tell him to stop putting the needle in his ass!

J/K

I've seen and known some big ass dudes that are juiced up as hell and compete, and they've always been flexible.

Even with the obese people I've worked with with tons of excess adipose, I've found ways to work around the 'hindrance.'

I'd tend to believe that there is always a way to stretch a specific muscle. Is he having issues with flexibility currently? Or he's trying to stretch for more of preventative measure?

 

[MysticRealm]

I don't know but to stretch chest muscles put you right arm out and against a pole or beam then turn your body so that arm is behind you, turn till you feel the stretch. (repeat with other arm)
To stretch back muscle go to a railing, grasp the railing with both hand lean back and arch your back up like a cat. You can stretch the side more by grasping the rail with you right arm only them lean to the right and arch (repeat for other side)
Hope those help a bit... they also stretch some of the arm muscles as well.

 

[James2]

Preventative

Together, we can get him a stretch on every muscle group except for his triceps, biceps, and deltoids. Trying to get those muscles a stretch with the conventional means is just not happening.