Staying Flexible: The Benefits of Therapist-Assisted Stretching

Incorporating stretching into your daily routine is a great way to increase your flexibility and ease of movement. Adding therapist-assisted stretching into your massage therapy session can reinforce your at-home stretches, leading to increased flexibility, muscle strength, blood and lymph circulation, reduced risk of injury, and overall health benefits.

As part of the intake conversation with your massage therapist, you’ll be asked if you have any injuries or restrictions in your range of motion. This is valuable information, even for a relaxation massage, since your therapist may include gentle traction or range of motion stretches as part of the session. After a day (or lifetime) of being weighed down by gravity and the business of living, therapist-assisted stretches can aid in overall relaxation and might even leave you feeling a few inches taller!

In Heaven & Health’s therapeutic sessions, we tend to focus on specific areas that are giving you trouble, such as sore legs from that long weekend trail hike or aching shoulders from a work week spent in front of the computer. We may also be working together on a multi-session goal such as recovering from an injury, or simply increasing flexibility in your hips and reducing tonicity in your glutes so that you’re able to move more fluidly with less discomfort. Depending on where you are in your recovery, we may incorporate stretching into your treatment routine.

We employ different types of stretching into our massage treatment, depending on your goal for that session. These might include:

• Passive (or static) stretching
• Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)
• Active Isolated Stretching (AIS)

We always work within our clients’ comfortable range of motion with incremental increases in stretch to prevent injury.

Talk to your therapist about any questions or concerns you may have about adding assisted stretching to your next massage session. Each time you visit us, your massage session is completely tailored to your individual experience and needs. Our customized approach includes deciding together on whether or not to add stretches, and what type of stretching would work best for your desired outcome.

Schedule a massage with assisted stretching today for flexibility and pain relief!