How assisted stretching is more beneficial than stretching alone

Why Assisted stretching is good for you

• Reduce back pain – Stretching and strengthening your back and abdominal muscles are important to help treat back pain. Stretching also helps to prevent the recurrence of back pain.

• Improve athletic performance – Flexibility can help improve strength, and help you perform your actions with greater ease, thus improving your performance. Dynamic stretching before physical activity has also been shown to prepare your muscles for the rigors of those activities.

• Aid in Recovery – Stretching after exercising helps to reduce muscle soreness and stiffness, helping you to regain pre-exercise ranges of motion.

• Reduces chances of injury – While stretching is a way to loosen your muscles, it is also effective in increasing the mobility of all soft tissues that restrict flexibility. This leads to the benefit of helping you to reduce your chances of injury.

• Increase Flexibility – Regular stretching can help improve your flexibility, which is right up there with both cardiovascular health and strength training when it comes to staying fit and healthy.

What is assisted stretching?

Assisted stretching is like a hybrid of physical therapy, personal training, massage therapy and yoga. It helps you to stretch beyond the surface layer of muscles, meaning you get into the deep, harder-to-reach layer of muscles – something that normal massage, everyday stretching and/or personal training may not be able to get to.

Done 1-on-1, you get focused stretching from our rehab specialist who assists you in pushing yourself beyond what you might be able to do alone. Many of the patients in Agape are shocked when Dr Luke discovers and highlights the imbalances that they have in their body. Even elite/competitive athletes and ballerinas, who already have such extreme flexibility, still benefit from assisted stretch sessions!

Why assisted stretching is better than stretching alone

Stretching yourself is a great start, but assisted stretching is more effective and efficient because of the following reasons:

• Better angles and tension – When you have someone stretching you, they have leverage and can apply tension that you can’t achieve on your own.
• Higher intensity – With leverage and superior tension, you will have a much more efficient and beneficial stretch.
• We tend to back off and rest when it takes too much effort
• We may not know what, where, or even how to stretch correctly and safely.

What happens during a stretching session with us?

You will be treated by Victor, our rehab specialist. During the session, he will:

• Ask you a few questions, and perform some tests on you to identify the areas that need work (For current patients at Agape, Dr Luke will liaise directly with Victor for added specificity)
• Do a more detailed examination of the areas that need work
• Perform some highly effective stretching moves on you, for all the affected areas

All you have to do is simply breathe slowly, relax, and let us do all the work!

Ready to book an appointment? Click here to schedule one.

Have any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us.

References

• https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-stretching#benefits
• https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/health/body-soul-daily/lets-get-flexible-why-stretching-is-a-good-for-you/news-story/579dea7a5d5605cd99d36aa60149d5da
• https://www.shape.com.sg/fitness/get-tight-muscles-stretched-pros-dr-stretch/
• https://greatist.com/move/are-stretching-classes-really-worth-it
• https://www.self.com/story/what-is-a-stretch-studio
• https://www.shape.com/fitness/trends/should-you-try-assisted-stretch-class-trend