Lifting or Stretching? (or BOTH At the Same Time?)

Two exercises I'm currently using to improve upon mobility weaknesses while also building muscle and strength

In recent months, I’ve become more bullish than before on the value of achieving a deep stretch with each repetition while resistance training for the purpose of building muscle.

At the beginning of this year, I posted a podcast where I discussed this topic with Dr. Milo Wolf, P.h.D. in Sports Science and an expert in research on how range-of-motion impacts resistance training outcomes. And, I also posted a deep dive, reviewing research on range-of-motion and muscle hypertrophy. 

But, there’s an additional benefit to achieving a deep stretch in your resistance training that I think is undervalued: improvements in mobility. 

According to one meta-analysis by Alizadeh and Colleagues’, lifting weights in general leads to similar improvements in flexibility as stretching or lifting weights and stretching combined . (I) And, in this regard, I think it’s reasonable to believe the following: 

1. that the portion of a given movement where the target muscle is more stretched is responsible for these mobility improvements

2. that emphasizing a deep stretch with each repetition may amplify those improvements as compared to not achieving that deep stretch

For these reasons, I’ve recently been applying extra consideration towards utilizing my resistance training to both build muscle and improve my mobility weaknesses. Below, I’ll outline a couple of my favorite examples of exercises that I find particularly useful for doing so. 

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Bulgarian Split Squat 

Reasoning

Whether it be due to sitting in chairs all day or simply not getting into full hip extension regularly, lack of hip extension is a classic example of a mobility weakness. 

For this, the bulgarian split squat is one of my favorite exercises, in that it both allows for a deep stretch in your hip flexors and is easily scalable to increase that stretch over time–all while offering a great hypertrophy stimulus to your quads and glutes. 

In addition, this is a great option when I’m looking to stimulate my legs while giving my spine a break from the axial loading (think compressing the spine) that comes with typical squatting and deadlifting movements. On top of this, like any other single-leg option, I think the bulgarian split squat is useful from a functional perspective, in that it challenges your balance and is somewhat specific to many daily tasks–like walking up stairs or carrying luggage or groceries–both of which may be useful from a longevity perspective. 

Execution

The exercise consists of elevating your rear foot on something behind you (I typically use a flat bench, but any elevated surface, like a plyo-box or couch if you’re at home, will do) while squatting down to the ground using your front foot. The further your front foot is out ahead of you, the more you will stretch and work your glute on your front leg, while you will work your quad on your front leg more if your foot is closer to the center of your body. 

When it comes to improving your hip extension, you’ll be stretching the hip flexors on your back leg as you drop into the split squat, and you can generally increase the stretch by placing your front foot further ahead of you. In addition, you can focus more on the stretch of your rear leg by dropping your rear knee down and back during the movement. 

As I alluded to above, you can easily scale this stretch by elevating your front foot on a weight plate or two, which is, in theory, likely beneficial for both mobility and muscle growth purposes. 

To be fair, by emphasizing the stretch of your rear leg, you may, in theory, be losing some of the stimulus you would get on your front leg if you placed all of your weight and focus on that lead leg and only used the rear leg for balance. But, in my opinion, this is probably a small factor and, at least for me, it’s worth losing a marginal amount of muscle gain in exchange for (theoretically) greater mobility benefits.

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Straight-Leg Calf Raise

Reasoning

Similar to hip extension, I think that dorsiflexion, or pulling your toes up towards the sky, is another classic mobility weakness that might be the result of lifestyle habits, this time potentially being the use of shoes and sneakers with elevated heels. 

Regardless of what is to blame, I think it’s common for people to be, “missing,” dorsiflexion in functional movements, such as at the bottom of the squat. 

In terms of stretching the calf muscles responsible for dorsiflexion, my favorite options are different variations of straight-leg calf raises. Seated calf-raises are useful as well, in that they stretch the soleus muscle, but they don’t provide the deepest stretch to the gastrocnemius muscles–the muscles most people aesthetically associate with the calf–because those muscles cross the knee joint and lose tension when the knee is bent. 

When the knee is kept straighter, though, such as in a standing calf raise or while doing straight-leg calf raises on a leg press machine, both those gastrocnemius muscles and the soleus muscles are deeply stretched. 

Not only does this intuitively make straight-knee calf raises superior to bent-knee variations for mobility purposes, but one study by Kinoshita et al. suggests that it makes them significantly superior for building calf muscle as well. (II)

Interestingly, the calf is one muscle group that we have direct evidence on in terms of range-of-motion research, in that a paper by Kassiano and Colleagues from 2023 suggests that both full range-of-motion and lengthened partials produce superior muscle growth in the gastrocnemius muscles as compared to shortened partials when completing calf raises on a leg press machine. (III) 

Further, the lengthened partial group whose repetitions solely consisted of the stretched half of the movement, outperformed the full range-of-motion condition–statistically significantly for the medial head and nearly statistically significantly (P = 0.06) for the lateral head with more than 2X as much relative growth in both cases. (III)

Figure taken from “Greater Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy After Partial Range of Motion Training Performed at Long Muscle Lengths” showing medial and lateral gastrocnemius hypertrophy following calf resistance training using full range-of-motion (FULL ROM), lengthened partials, (INITIAL ROM), and shortened partials (FINAL ROM). (III)

Execution

Like I described above, the best forms of calf raises from a stretch perspective will be those that involve keeping the knee straighter. 

I prefer using either a leg press machine or a smith machine instead of using a regular barbell because the former two options provide more stability–I tend to lose my balance too much with a regular barbell. 

Another great option, especially if you’re pressed for time is doing single-leg bodyweight calf-raises. For most people, your bodyweight will be enough load if you use one leg at a time, and the only thing you need is a staircase or a couple of weight plates to stand on top of next to something to gently use for balance.

For these reasons, the single-leg standing calf raise is awesome for somebody training from home, training at a time of day when you would otherwise have to wait your turn to use a machine or weight rack at the gym, or looking to easily save time doing supersets.

Regardless of the variation, the calf raise is simple: position the balls of your foot or feet on the edge of an elevated surface, lower your heels as far as they can go, then lift yourself back up either to the starting position or half-way up if you’re doing lengthened partials (I typically do the latter).  

I will often implement a slight pause at the bottom of the stretch with each repetition, and, sometimes, I will even just hold that bottom stretch position for ~15 seconds at the end of the set. The second option is useful because, similar to partner stretching, the extra load allows me to get into a deeper stretch than I would otherwise be able to do if I did a typical calf stretch. 

This is helpful in general, and specifically for loosening my calves if I am doing calf raises before doing squats or some other exercise that involves deep dorsiflexion.

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Conclusion

I haven’t gained any crazy mobility from them yet, but I do feel that these exercises, in combination with an emphasis on a deep stretch, have been particularly useful for improving upon my mobility weaknesses. 

And, even if they weren’t providing any significant mobility benefits, they’re still great options for building muscle and strength. 

What do you think about this all? I’m curious to hear your thoughts, especially if you give these exercises a try.