Last year my fitness resolution was very simple: engage in some physical activity at least three times a week. This year, after having committed to barre for the rest of 2019, I found myself with a new goal: to be able to do the coveted split. While that may not seem like a lofty goal for some, as someone who suffers from lack of any flexibility and short hamstrings, it's a big one for me.
Heather Andersen, founder of New York Pilates—that has long offered Stretch, a restorative class that uses a Reformer machine and props to improve flexibility—agrees that stretching is often overlooked by fitness enthusiasts despite how counter-intuitive that is."People have limited time in their week, and normally put their workout first," she says."The important thing to realize is that you can actually achieve better fitness results by making time to stretch.
So if stretching can do all this when added on top of a workout, why do so many run out of the spin studio the minute cardio is over?"We like to say stretching is like the flossing of fitness. It's a 'you know you should' kind of activity, but easily forgotten at the expense of spending more hours in intense workouts, at the desk, or simply powering through the pain," Chu says.
While NYP's Stretch is a fitness-like, very low-impact class designed to help the Pilates frequenter to get deeper into the muscles they use, both Stretch'd and Stretch Relief offer one-on-one classes, ranging from 25 to 75 minutes, where a specialist addresses specific issues a client may have and creates an individualized session following a conversation and assessment.
The world is indeed catching on. In addition to studios like Stretch'd and Stretch Relief opening in the last year alone, devices like Hypervolt appeared on many recent holiday wish lists."In an age where information is in abundance, as are methods of working out, people are starting to realize that stretching and recovery are just as important as the work," explains Saint-Dic people's new interest in stretching.