Therapeutic Stretching Massage

Therapeutic stretching is a very useful and effective technique I often incorporate into my treatments. Active isolated stretching (AIS) is one type of therapeutic stretching. AIS uses the bodies own reflexes to help your muscles lengthen and stretch. Each stretch is held for no more than two seconds while simultaneously contracting the opposing muscles to induce reciprocal inhibition/relaxation in the muscle being stretched. This restricts the muscle spindle/stretch reflex and helps the muscle to lengthen more easily. Another form of therapeutic stretching is post-isometric relaxation . With post-isometric relaxation the muscle to be stretched is lightly contracted against resistance for about 7 seconds. Then the client relaxes while the massage therapist takes up the “slack” in muscle until a new resistance point is reached. Therapeutic stretching can be used as the primary treatment for those clients that aren’t able to tolerate more specific massage. Below are a few common examples addressed by therapeutic stretching and who would benefit.

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