Stretch-mediated hypertrophy (SMH) is the biggest research revolution from the last years according to many exercise scientists. Stretch-mediated hypertrophy is often defined as the additional muscle growth gained from training muscles at long lengths, such as deep squats, lengthened partials and resisted static stretching protocols, versus shorter-length training. I’ll use that definition here, though as you’ll see, it’s not really clear yet that this growth is directly caused by any stretching effect. Passive tension is a leading candidate growth pathway. In fact, there is a school of thought that SMH is irrelevant, because it only causes temporary muscle lengthening, not...[Read More]