Become more flexible through strength training?

Question

Say you're performing an exercise which forces you to have proper form and a certain degree of flexibility to perform correctly. For example, pistol/overhead/front squats. If I emphasize heavily on preserving proper form (full range of motion, no 'going around the joints' etc.) as I progress towards a heavier load, will that range of motion "cement" itself?

I ask because stretching is, to my experience, very temporal. It works well as a drill before exercise, but, stretching alone hasn't got me far. And I am desperate for some flexibility.

As a follow up: I am contemplating the idea of stretching for a long time all muscles and simply do some deep front squats etc. to really mobilize that form. Up until now, I have done with mediocre form (to parallel) and it has become like a barrier that I cannot pass. Even for light weight.

Answer 1

No it won't cement itself. Mobility is very much a "use it or lose it" addition to your strength arsenal. As you say stretching is temporal. So is mobility.

For overhead stuff say you do shoulder dis-locators, for example, then when you're done working out, say 3 days later, you haven't done any more mobility stuff. You will lose that mobility and need to warm up (mobility wise) to get back in the swing of things. Keep at it!

However, the motion of the movement would cement itself. It's called muscle memory. This also supports the reasoning behind: When you take a break and get back into the same sport, you will get the strength gains back quicker than if you had never played before. This is because your body remembers the pattern of movements and can therefore apply them quicker.