The Benefits of Resistance Stretching

Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training

From the above picture you might be thinking, 'it looks like yoga'. There are yoga mats, yoga blocks, it even looks like a yoga studio. 

Resistance flexibility workouts are not the same as yoga or any other form of traditional stretching. It's not active stretching, passive stretching, isometrics or PNF. It's it's own thing... and it is remarkable! 

What is resistance stretching, how to do it?

The first thing you need to understand about resistance stretching is the fascia. You could even call the method 'fascia resistance stretching'... even though we don't. Resistance stretching exercises target fascia in an amazing and fast way. There are many modalities out there that are focused on fascia and fascia is getting into the mainstream as an essential tissue to be addressed therapeutically. There's Rolfing (been around for a while), MyoFascial Release (also been around for a while). There's foam rollers and balls, the Melt Method, the Fascia Blaster, and then there are the many fitness and yoga instructors and body whisperers who incorporate one or more of these methods in their classes and instruction. 

So what sets The Bendable Body Method of Resistance Stretching apart? Resistance flexibility workouts are just that... they are a full body workout that addresses both flexibility and strength while at the same time therapeutically removing pain and injury and improving posture and performance. I don't know of any other method that does all that with one just one exercise. 

What makes The Bendable Body Method so different?

The combination of two things make Bendable Body different from other forms of stretching and fascia therapies.

1. Your internal resistive force.

2. The external force lengthening the target muscle against your resistance.

When YOU contract, resist, and tense the targeted muscle group (remaining active during the stretch in other words), AND you lengthen the muscle/s against that force through a stretch movement... TWO FORCES work against one another to achieve dramatic results in both flexibility and strength. What's more, the fascia is targeted and there is NO PAIN.

Resistance Stretching - The 4 Pillars of a Stretch!

Pillar 1. Start Postion

Pillar 2. Contract, Resist, Tense

Pillar 3. Maintain Pillow 2 and Lengthen for the Stretch Movement

Pillar 4. Release and Return to the Start Position

Here are some Resistance Stretching examples:

Overview of Resistance Stretching and the Benefits: 

As you saw in the video, resistance stretching exercises are very different from traditional forms of stretching and yoga.

1. You start with the target muscle in a shortened or contracted position
2. You generate maximal resistance within the target muscle. This activates the surrounding and penetrating fascia and also suspends movement at the nearby joints - protecting both the muscles and the joints from over-stretching. 
3. Your only lengthen the muscle so long as you can maintain resistive force. When the resistance wanes the stretch is over. It's a movement and there is no 'passive holding of the stretch'. 
4. Resistance Stretch movements are eccentrically loaded movements - the exact opposite of strength training. In this way they are the balancing movement for strength training and the true definition of what stretching or flexibility training actually is.
5. Because you are contracting or resisting the target muscle, the muscle fibers are involved and you are creating increased strength as well flexibility. It is estimated that Resistance Stretching generates an increase in strength 15% and more of what traditional strength training generates.
6. When you contract the muscle, you grab the surrounding and penetrating fascia. When you lengthen against that contraction the fascia turns on a right angle to itself and is exfoliated and restructured on a cellular level. Just like when you get a facial and exfoliate dry skin to leave the remaining skin more supple and hydrated, the same thing happens internally with the hardened, dry, stiff fascia. After applying Resistance Stretching to that fascia tissue, what remains is more hydrated, supple, pliable and flexible. 
7. Results from Resistance Stretching include: 
   1. Increased Flexibility (Muscles contract, lengthen and rotate better)
   2. Increased Strength (Muscles perform better in all forms of movement and balance)
   3. Improved Posture (Unhealthy fascia is improved and this lessons the warping it has on muscles, skeleton and therefore posture and alignment)
   4. Decreased Pain and Injuries (When your muscles don't work well and lack both strength and flexibility as a result of accumulated unhealthy fascia, but you still move your body around, the movements happen excessively in the joints, which ultimately turns into wear and tear, pain and injuries)
   5. Performance Upgrades (When your muscles work better because of the removal of unhealthy fascia, speed, acceleration, accuracy and recovery in performance all increase)

How to use Resistance Stretching for Strength Training and Aerobic Exercise

Active resistance stretching, functional resistance stretching are both ways to describe the full body workouts you get with a Bendable Body stretching routine. Most people have one exercise for strengthening their muscles, another for stretching their muscles, a third to get a cardio or aerobic workout, and 4th for addressing their fascia. 

That's a lot of workouts! And most people will sacrifice one or more because there just isn't enough time in the day. 

We are here to tell you there is one exercise method that does it all.

Let's take John for example - that's him in the above picture doing a stretch for the neck and shoulders which also affects the large intestine meridian and organ. John grew up playing sports, lifting weights and running whenever he wanted to drop a few pounds. He struggled with back pain from the age of 19, he had severe digestion and allergy issues for his entire childhood and into his adult life and by the time he was in his mid 30s his weight was up over 200 lbs. Running, weight lifting, and 6 years of yoga as an adult didn't address any of it on a permanent basis. Yes, he could drop weight when he thew on the running shoes and sweat when he did yoga, but the back pain never went away and the weight always came back on. 

Until he found Resistance Stretching. That was about 20 years ago. Since then this has been his reality: 

• Zero back pain
• No allergies 
• Normal digestion
• Stable weight that he had in high school
• Runs faster than he did in high school
• No running, no weight lifting, NO DIETING, no yoga, no kleenex boxes! 

He accomplished all of this with Resistance Stretching ALONE. And so have 1000s of other people. 

When you stretch using resistance your muscles are activated and strengthening. But unlike weight training, you are actually accessing muscle fiber that you might not have accessed in years or perhaps ever. When you weight train you tend to repetitively strengthen along the same pathways. This not only misses the point but it can accentuate poor alignment and posture - increasing the dysfunction in both. Furthermore, and many of you have probably been there, it's really easy to injure yourself from overdoing it with weight training. Which in turn forces you to take a break from working out all together. 

The same is true for any cardio or aerobic activity - which are essentially requiring that you make concentric movements or strength training movements (as opposed to the eccentric resistive movements you make with Resistance Stretching). In short, you wear your body out. You strengthen along pathways you are always strengthening along rather than finding new pathways and you end up injured, in pain, and out of the game.

There is a better way that does it all. When you Resistance Stretch you activate muscle fibers that are normally not accessed to create strength, you restructure unhealthy fascia to create true flexibility, you work hard to get your heart rate up and create aerobic activity in your  body, you improve your posture and alignment, you take pressure off your joints because you are getting your muscles to work better, and you heal pain and injuries. 

Oh and there's more, because our stretches align with meridian channels you directly improve organ and physiological health.  

Resistance Stretching is the exercise of the future, but it's available to you right now. What are you waiting for?