Kinstretch: Anti-Aging, Injury Prevention & Performance Enhancement In One Cutting-Edge Class

Kinstretch: Anti-Aging, Injury Prevention & Performance Enhancement In One Cutting-Edge Class

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I am so stiff in the morning.
I don’t have any pain, just stiffness, everywhere.
My whole body aches.
I feel like I am just getting old.
I want to be able to maintain my level of activity into my old age.
I want to be a better athlete.
I want to be able to run faster, bike further, golf better.
I want to get in better shape but every time I try, I hurt myself.
I want to be able to keep up with my grandkids.
I have never been flexible, therefore I never will be.
I have arthritis- it’s just a matter of time until I have to get a hip/knee replacement.

These are things I hear all the time from patients and just people in general who talk to me about their bodies. When I hear this, I think to myself, this person is a “perfect candidate” for my new class, Kinstretch. Then I catch myself- – – the truth is, everyone is “perfect” for Kinstretch– from young kids to elderly adults- and the class can be modified for any body.

I am the only Kinstretch instructor north of Boston, East of Montreal, so most people in this region don’t know anything about it.

Kinstretch was developed from scientific (neurological) principles by renowned researcher and chiropractor, (who also happens to have been a classmate of mine and the husband of one of my best friends!), Dr. Andreo Spina. Kinstretch is now an integral part of training for most elite athletes and Andreo himself works directly with many PGA, MLB, NFL, NHL athletes and martial artists. Despite Kinstretch’s fame in the athletic training industry, the general population still has no idea about how this amazing practice can help them!

Kinstretch is a mobility-based class, that teaches you how to move all the joints of your body to their fullest extent so that you don’t lose your current range of motion. When it comes to range of motion, if we don’t use it, we lose it. All babies can touch their toes to their mouth-but how many adults can? This is because we stop actually doing that once we are no longer babies! The average adult, and increasing numbers of children, tend to live their lives in about 25% of the ranges our joints are capable of, and this is why, as we age, we slowly start to lose our range of motion. Kinstretch gently re-introduces our muscles, joints, nerves and brain to the ranges of motion we are capable of now, so we don’t continue to become stiffer and stiffer with age.

In this sense, practicing Kinstretch is pivotal in preventing injury. Injuries happen when we do not have muscular and neurological control over the ranges our bodies sometimes get put into. Take, for example, a sprained ankle. This happens when our ankle unexpectedly rolls into the far reaches of our end range of motion. The joint is capable of that range, but because we do not generally take our ankle into that range frequently (or at all), our nervous system and muscles are not capable of controlling it- they are not trained to kick in to activate in that range and we end up tearing the passive soft tissue- the ligament. If we practiced a) taking our ankle through all it’s ranges daily with control and b) loading those end ranges (one way would be to try standing, walking or squatting on the outside of our feet), both the integrity of the soft tissues and the reaction time of the nervous system would be “trained” and “ready” to save that ankle.

Kinstretch also teaches you how to gain range of motion and keep it, long term. Have you ever stretched your hamstrings and gained 10-20 degrees of motion, only to find the next time you stretch them, they are right back to being as tight as they were before the last time you stretched? Passive stretching is how we increase our range but our nervous system and brain need to recognize the newfound range as something worth keeping- and the way we do that is to make our muscles around that joint WORK/CONTRACT once in that new found range immediately after we have gained that range. Having an overall greater range of motion in all of our joints also prevents injury and improves athletic performance- just picture how much more power your stride would have with full hip extension, or how much better your golf swing would be with better spinal rotation!

I have been LOVING teaching these classes because it is so rewarding to make such an impact on the trajectory of someone’s aging experience. Often times, this class can change someone’s future much more than anything I can do for them in the treatment room. I would love to see you in my class.