Our Stretches Combine Three Disciplines
Stretch therapy encompasses a range of disciplines that promote flexibility, mobility, and overall wellbeing. Three popular methods within this realm are Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), Thai Yoga, and Rocking and Dynamic Movements. Each technique offers unique benefits and can be tailored to individual needs, making stretch therapy a versatile and effective approach to improving physical health.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)
A trained assisted stretch therapist provides manual resistance and assistance throughout each stretch, creating tension in your muscles before moving you into a more relaxed, deeper stretch.
After 8 to 10 seconds, you are asked to take a deep breath and then your therapist stretches the muscle a bit further, holding for 10 to 15 seconds. The length of time a stretch is held is key. PNF techniques follow a specific protocol of hold-relax, contract-relax, and hold-relax and after warming up the stretch can get deeper and deeper towards your natural point of resistance
This combination of passive and tension based movements helps the nervous system to relax into the stretch rather than contract against it, allowing the muscle to stretch further than with other styles of stretching.
Thai Yoga Massage Therapy
In Thai Yoga massage the bodys fascial lines are stretched through a combination of soft-tissue manipulation, acupressure on energy lines and points, rhythmic compression and a large variety of yoga like stretches.
The body’s fascial lines are swathes of connective tissue that run throughout the body and help the body move as a unit. They enclose organs, muscles and other tissues and work together to create stability, strength, flexibility and posture.
Pressure can be exerted with the therapist’s hand, feet, knees, elbows and legs. These movements improve flexibility, release superficial and deep muscular tension, and promote deep relaxation with a quieting of the mind.
The effect is similar to yoga and is sometimes referred to as passive yoga, or “lazy person’s yoga” since the recipient plays only a passive role.
Rocking and Other Dynamic Movements In Stretch Therapy
Originating again in Thai massage, continuous movement, rocking, waving, harmonic movements, and dynamic stretches help mobilise the joints. It enables the therapist to have more variation, be more effective and therefore more therapeutic.
The benefits it offers are:
• A deeper sense of relaxation as it stimulates energy flow through the body
• Helps you recover flexibility and increases mobility
• Dynamic moving pressure can be more effective than stationary static pressure
• A great tool for sensitive areas and will help you relax if you feel nervous or are unknowingly holding tension in your muscles.
• Particularly helpful with joint problems and releasing energy blockages
This gentle application of the body’s own physiology during soothing rocking aims to prevent the stretch reflex that can occur if you feel the impulse to resist a stretch or if your muscle contracts to protect you during a longer stretch.
