Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
You get bigger by overworking your muscles, then resting them with adequate protein intake. Some people get bigger easily, some do not. Nothing to do with fascia. Stretching before or during a workout is not recommended. Stretch after if you must. Stretching certainly will not make you bigger. If I'm lifting correctly, I get plenty of stretch during the exercises. When I ride long distances, I might stretch every 3 hours or so while I'm eating, or I might not. Depends on how I'm feeling.
Mostly true. But stretching is critical if you want to increase power, and increased power will allow creating more tension in the muscles, which can help to increase muscle size. And cycling, just like sitting all day at a desk, shortens the hamstrings which can cause other problems. I think the real magic of stretching is that it increases strength through the entire range of motion which has benefits for both strength and endurance. Also note that increased flexibility reduces the amount of work required to overcome inflexibility. So for cycling that means the quads don't have to work as hard to overcome hamstring tension.
There is nothing you can do sitting on a bike that amounts to effective stretching.