Inflexible? Bad Posture? High Stress Schedule? Here are 4 things I learned about assisted stretching when trying it out.
Confession of a dietitian and trainer (aka, me): I am extremely inflexible. I have bad posture. I tell myself I need to work on it. I bought foam roller and promised I would begin using it (never happened). I tell myself I will get better about setting aside time to stretch. But then life just. gets. SO.BUSY. Am I the only one? Hence why I decided to try out assisted stretching as Massage Envy here in town.
After learning so much and having such a great experience, I asked you all over on Instagram if you had tried it – and so many hadn’t, I decided why not share all the things I learned about assisted stretching (and my own flexibility) when trying it out for the first time.
So here’s the 4 big things:
4 Things I Learned When Trying Assisted Stretching:
1. It can benefit anyone from pro athletes to weekend warriors
I found it interesting that many in the PGA Tour utilize Massage Envy’s Streto Method in order to recover well and take care of their bodies. But the great thing is, that the same assisted stretching program that is used on the PGA Tour is available to ANYONE that has a Massage Envy location close by.
I found an article on the use of it in the PGA Tour, and I loved this quote by Josh Crosby, a world-champion rower and endurance athlete, as he emphasized the importance of stretching and massage to help maintain his fitness:
“For years, people have been training like athletes but not recovering like athletes… ‘Recovery’ is often just a quick stretch at the end of class and that’s about it.”
I thought that was SO true of me. Whether during my competitive athlete days as a D1 college runner, or now, as simply a “weekend warrior” or loves fitness and being active – I definitely haven’t prioritized stretching and the recovery process post workout/training as much as I should.
Whether you’re a competitive athlete or simply a crazy busy mom, busy working professional, or high stressed CEO/Business Owner — assisted stretching can be beneficial for multiple reasons even outside of recovery and flexibility (which I talk about specifically further down!)
2. Prescribed movements by professionals can deliver more than you can achieve stretching yourself
Without even being told by my stretch provider at Massage Envy, I could see that I was able to be stretched in ways I would have never been able to do on my own, just through my own assisted stretching experience. My stretch provider would take different parts of my body and begin stretching them in different angles, always asking me to stop her at a point of about 6-7 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of discomfort from the stretch. She was very careful not to overstretch me, but to move my body in angles that I would have never been able to do on my own (even if I did make time for stretching!)
3. I’m more inflexible in areas than I thought, which gave me insight on the “problem areas” I need to work on most
Okay so maybe I already knew I was EXTREMELY inflexible. But what I didn’t realize is that this assisted stretching session would help me identify areas I really need to work on, versus areas that maybe I wasn’t super stiff like I thought was the case for every part of my body!
As a runner, I always had ongoing knee pain, which was a PAIN in the butt to deal with (no pun intended). I was always told it was simply due to inflexibility and lack of strength of the muscles around my knee. As my stretch provider began stretching my legs and groin/hip areas, I realized I needed to really focus on my lower body, as it was extremely tight, and could help relieve any knee pain going forward.
Assisted Stretching can give you insight on what you need the most work on, as my stretch provider even noted that she loves to do this before a massage so that then she can go in and really work on the areas of the body needing it in-depth.
4. There are more benefits of assisted stretching than just increased flexibility
My stretch provider talked about how people always ask, “will this make me lose weight?!”. Well, short answer, not right away. BUT, a huge part of weight gain is due to high levels of stress, and assisted stretching can help relieve stress. So long term picture, it CAN help in your health journey by serving as a stress relief. Which I can attest to — I felt SO relaxed and mobile when leaving that room after my assisted stretch.
Not only that, but due to the increased flexibility and mobility that assisted stretching can lead to, this will also positively affect your posture, range of motion, blood flow through body (increasing it), stress levels (decreasing it), mobility limitations as you age, and athletic performance (such as improvements in strength, speed, power, agility and endurance!).
So as you can see, there can be A LOT of benefits of assisted stretching, and it was a super fun experience. It wasn’t painful like I thought it may be for someone extremely inflexible like myself — yet I could tell it was a super effective technique as minute by minute I felt my body and muscles relax after a long work day.