Moving Stretch®

Moving Stretch® is like nothing you’ve experienced before. Not yoga, not pilates, PNF, or static (“normal”) stretching; it requires that we engage our muscles continuously throughout a specific movement. This is just like when we yawn and stretch, but with many different kinds of movements to work on different areas of the body.

This is something that humans and animals do naturally, to help keep our bodies in good working order. Moving Stretches are all a lot like this, but include many different movements and techniques and usually less yawning.

The Self-Stretching

Moving Stretch® self-stretching consists of a wide variety of individual stretches as well as routines, which will help you open up your body, improve posture and mobility and stay youthful.

There are many ways you can learn the stretching - buy the book (the UK, US or German version), watch the online videos on our site, try this online Udemy course or book a 1-2-1 session with a Moving Stretch trainer.

Moving Stretch self-stretching is a great way to learn to maintain your own body, decrease stress, improve posture and mobility and stay youthful by reconditioning your fascia - the scaffolding of your body.

Why not check out this guide on how to stretch to get the idea before you start your stretching journey.

Assisted-Stretching Sessions

Moving Stretch® assisted-stretching is a very effective way to address a wide variety of postural issues, physical imbalance and tension. Trainers have gone through thorough training to provide high-quality sessions that are completely tailored to your body.

Most sessions begin with walking massage to warm up your tissue and prepare your fascia for stretching. This is also a great way to relieve tension and release “stuck” areas.

This is as hard or soft as required, with the trainers using very controlled pressure (we usually lean on walking frames for extra safety and stability). It is not a scary massage but very safe and surprisingly effective.

While getting stretched you provide some resistance while the trainer takes care of the stretching movement, direction and speed. It does take a little bit of concentration but most people pick it up quickly. The point is not to stretch as far or as hard as you can, but to change the body safely and at a pace that is sustainable and healthy. However, even though the range of motion during the stretching is conservative most people feel more flexible afterwards.

You can expect to feel lighter and to move differently than before. This is partly because, through removing adhesions in your body and working on your fascia, you may feel “released” from old tension pulling you down. Many people also become more open in their posture and even feel a benefit to their health and energy levels.

We have several trainers who are qualified to give assisted stretching sessions, check out the Find a Trainer page to get in touch with one near you.

Some More Info on the Stretching

The Mechanics of Resistance Stretching

Normal or "static" stretching means that we go to the end of a range of motion and stay there, trying to push even further. The only problem is that this often leads to straining areas of weakness, rather than working on our tightest areas. Also our body may tighten up reflexively to protect us, so we may end up worse than we started.

By contrast, Moving Stretch uses a combination of movement and constant resistance (or tension) within a safe range of motion. By engaging our muscles in this way, we also engage the fascia, which is a type of dense connective tissue. With our fascia engaged, we can gently and effectively reshape it and recondition it, leading to significant and more lasting change. Not only that - but this method improves the health of our tissue in general, leading to increased health and youthfulness.

(Please note some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means I may make a small amount of profit from the sale, but it does not affect the price you pay).

A Couple of Videos About Moving Stretch

Watch trainer David Croft give a brief introduction to resistance stretching at the beginning of his class at the Brighton Yoga Festival.

I (Suzanne) chat to Javier, who was a model in the book. He took part in the 4-week stretching program (as did all the book models who demonstrated a routine) and in this video he talks about his experience.

It was fascinating to me, as I was so busy on the day of shooting the book pics I didn't have time to find out the full extent of his improvements until we did this interview (although I saw the change in his posture!).