Workout For Flexibility

In some form or another, that phrase is stuck into many weightlifters' heads. They believe stretching is for gymnastics and yoga freaks looking to contort their bodies in weird shapes.
Stretching is overlooked by weightlifters because it seems to decrease muscular size. You've just finished an arm workout, your biceps and triceps are pumped and are an inch bigger, you look like a pit bull. The last thing you want to do is rid yourself of that feeling by stretching, right?
As we all know that pumped feeling doesn't last, the blood and lactic acid leaves your arms. Because of the intense workout with no stretching your arms stay in a semi-contracted state for hours. This in turn, very slightly decreases the range of motion in your biceps and triceps. Multiply this by 500 arm workouts and imagine how much range of motion you lose.
Five years ago you were able to scratch your middle back; nowadays you rub yourself against a corner. It isn't because you've gained muscle, it's because you lost flexibility. So you start stretching right? Nah, I bet half of you are thinking "So what, five years of stretching is big price to pay compared to $3 for a back-scratcher." Well what if I told you stretching would increase muscle growth, would you do it?
It does, stretching actually increases muscle growth. How in the world does stretching play a part in growth?
Every muscle in your body is enclosed in connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is what keeps your muscles in place. Over time you workout and your muscles grow, but nothing happens to your fascia. There is no type of protein powder that targets fascia growth.
Thus your muscles grow until they become too compressed along the fascia. At this point your muscles are limited in growth by the rate of expansion of the fascia, which is very slow compared to what it could be. Now do you want to stretch? Probably so... It is possible that muscle memory is actually the fascia's rate of expansion. Beginners gain muscle quickly because their fascia is not 'filled'. Experienced lifters who took off a while and are getting back into it gain fast because their fascia has already been stretched out to a great amount, allowing their muscles to freely grow.
While it's not 100% known, there is a great chance the fascia is the deciding factor, or at least a part of the phenomena we call 'muscle memory'. So let's start making our muscles 'remember' what they never knew in the first place!