Getting back your flexibility to avoid workout or sports injuries used to be a time consuming, sometimes painful, and often frustrating job. The expression "no pain, no gain" is a dangerous philosophy in any flexibility program. There should never be an injury in a flexibility program.

With a new technique called Active Isolation Stretching (AIS) developed during 25 years of research by Aaron Mattes, registered kinesiotherapist and licensed massage therapist, flexibility can be fun, quick, and effective.

When bringing a muscle into a stretch, and holding it for too long, the muscle reacts by "locking out," which can be quite uncomfortable. AIS allows the muscle to stretch without the "lockout" effect. The body has time to supply the muscle with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to effectively lengthen, without tissue damage. The basic principle of AIS is to take the load off the muscle being stretched. In other words, if you want to stretch your hamstrings (muscles in the back of your legs), you can't effectively stretch them if you're using both legs to hold you up. (Aaron reminds us that Sherrington's law states that a muscle has the potential to contract or relax but cannot do both simultaneously). The more effective way to stretch your hamstrings is to take the load off them and identify and isolate the muscle group, and then intensify the contractile effort of that muscle group. By lying on your back, use a strap or a rope to assist in stretching your leg toward your head. Hold the stretch for only 1 ½ to 2 seconds beyond the point of light irritation, release the pressure, return to the start position, and repeat the prescribed number of repetitions, (generally anywhere from 6 to 15 repetitions). Correct breathing and rhythmic movement bring lots of heat to the muscle being stretched, and it gently allows the lengthening to occur without the stretch reflex (muscle lock out).

Enjoy this revolutionary approach to stretching, and for the first time in many people's stretching career, get flexible without the agony!