You put your weights down, last rep is finished, you feel pumped and exhausted. Want to feel even better now and after every workout? Stretch. Static stretching of fatigued muscles performed immediately following the exercise enhances muscle growth and will actually help decrease the level of post-exercise soreness. After you have used weights (or other means) to overload and fatigue your muscles, your muscles retain a "pump" and are shortened somewhat. This "shortening" is due mostly to the repetition of intense muscle activity that often only takes the muscle through part of its full range of motion.
The "pumped" muscle is also full of lactic acid and other by-products from exhaustive exercise. If the muscle is not stretched afterward, it will retain this decreased range of motion (it sort of "forgets" how to make itself as long as it could) and the buildup of lactic acid will cause post-exercise soreness. Static stretching of the "pumped" muscle helps it to become "looser", and to "remember" its full range of movement. It also helps to remove lactic acid and other waste-products from the muscle. While it is true that stretching the "pumped" muscle will make it appear visibly smaller, it does not decrease the muscle's size or inhibit muscle growth. It merely reduces the "tightness" (contraction) of the muscles so that they do not "bulge" as much. Also, strenuous workouts will often cause damage to the muscle's connective tissue. The tissue heals in 1 to 2 days but it is believed that the tissues heal at a shorter length (decreasing muscular development as well as flexibility). To prevent the tissues from healing at a shorter length, physiologists recommend static stretching after strength workouts.
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