by Chris Watts

When people used to ask me what I did for a living, I told them "I’m a Stretch Therapist". Their first question in those days was "what on earth is that?

I am glad to say that with my unmistakably long blond curly locks and bold and sometimes brash branding of my company Stretch, we are now firmly regarded as one of the leading bodywork centers in Asia and stretching is now seen as a “cool” and fun part of fitness training.

10 years on, we have refined new stretching sequences and protocols to improve our techniques and results for clients. There are now dedicated stretching studios, better trained therapists, a better understanding of the science of flexibility from new research on stretching techniques.

10 more years of glowing testimonials on Active Isolated Stretching from doctors, sports academics, physiotherapists and other primary healthcare practitioners who have seen the enormous success in terms of their clients improved mobility and pain management.

Active Isolated Stretching in 2007 is definitely here to stay.

At this 10 year juncture of instructing, lecturing and practicing Active Isolated Stretching, it is so encouraging for me to receive so much interest from clinics the world over, asking how they too can get involved with AIS and integrate it into their bodywork.

The future of this modality looks very promising.

Almost to the day back in early 1997, I left the clinic of Aaron Mattes, founder and developer of Active Isolated Stretching, in Sarasota Florida, having completed a 250 hour instructor training course, in this 30 year old manual therapy modality that was virtually unknown outside of the USA.

As a US trained manual therapist, I had been privy to many of the 100 or more outstanding manual therapies on offer, but Aaron’s work is one of the most powerful and results-orientated bodywork I had thus far come across.

What was extraordinary about my experience at Aaron’s clinic was seeing the daily number of wheelchairs rolling in with cerebral palsy, stroke, Parkinson and MS patients who were being treated along side 300 pound football players with torn ankle tendons or rotator cuff injuries.

It was functional rehabilitation at its best.

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was witnessing a mini-fitness/wellness revolution in the making. Little did I know that 10 years on, I would be running the largest and most successful Active Isolated Stretching clinic in Asia, with over 400 clients a month passing through our clinic doors.

One of my clear and lasting memories from my training time back in early 1997 was seeing a New York Multiple Sclerosis patient who was on her annual 2 week pilgrimage to see Aaron for stretching and strengthening treatment. She would start the 3 hour session not being able to hold a glass of water in her hand as it was shaking so much. By the end of the comprehensive head to toe Active Isolated Stretching session, her hands were as steady as a rock as if all her nerves had re-connected.

In those days Aaron would say “We don’t know why it works, but it does”.

Until now there has been no scientific research into this relatively new approach to stretching muscles and connective tissue.

Last year, when I was in the UK opening a new Stretch studio, I was delighted to meet Rebecca Kingdom who completed her Physiotherapy degree with a thesis on the effectiveness of AIS against static stretching on hamstring flexibility. The conclusion was that AIS was indeed more effective and more functional than the standard 10-30 second static stretching method for lengthening muscle tissues.

Active sports require active stretching techniques to be effective and lasting.

The National Institute of Health in the USA is about to embark on a study of Parkinson disease and how Active Isolated Stretching can be used to help sufferers. We will keep you informed of the outcome of this study.

Meanwhile Chiropractor, Dr. Hammer in the Dynamic Chiropractor Archives has written a superb article on Active Isolated Stretching. Here is the link to that article released on January 29th 2007.  www.chiroweb.com/columnist/hammer 

A client of mine who suffers from Charcot Marie Tooth disorder sent me this recently published article written about Active Isolated Stretching in the recent neuropathy website www.hnf-cure.org

 For those not familiar with CMT here is a brief overview; Charcot-Marie-Tooth, or CMT, is the most commonly inherited neurological disorder, affecting approximately 150,000 Americans. CMT is found world-wide in all races and ethnic groups. It was discovered in 1886 by three physicians, Jean-Martin-Charcot, Pierre Marie, and Howard Henry Tooth.

CMT patients slowly lose normal use of their feet/legs and hands/arms as nerves to the extremities degenerate and the muscles in the extremities become weakened because of the loss of stimulation by the affected nerves. Many patients also have some loss of sensory nerve function.

CMT usually isn’t life-threatening and almost never affects brain function. It is not contagious, but it is hereditary and can be passed down from one generation to the next.

I arrived in Hong Kong in early 1997 and was at that time one of only 2 US trained body workers in Hong Kong. There was one gym, recently opened by the last Governor Chris Patton, one Pilates studio and one Yoga centre in a city of 7 million people! There was no dedicated stretching centre.

Health and fitness was considered an eccentric pastime for westerners and overseas educated Chinese. The only stretching on offer was PNF, passive and static. It was indeed quite unpopular to stretch back then as it was considered a painful experience. Most personal trainers and coaches were inexperienced in putting their hands on people and their motto then were the proverbial “more pain, more gain”. I was going to have a hard time convincing people that Active Isolated Stretching was the most therapeutic and safe approach to lengthening fascia and soft tissue out there. I had no track record and was totally unknown. Hong Kong felt like a closed shop and I was going to have to open many doors before I was to be taken seriously.

At the Asia-Fit conference back in 1997, I launched myself and my new approach to stretching to the whole fitness industry of Asia who was watching me carefully and critically. At my opening lecture/workshop I had 50 of Asia’s top trainers eagerly listening-in and hanging off my every word and action. They were hungry for new knowledge from outsiders such as me. What sort of questions were they going to throw my way and could I answer them? The most controversial point that I raised was the holding of stretches past their natural limits for no longer than 2 seconds.

Why 2 seconds and what about Yoga that holds stretches for 60 seconds in some cases?

It is now known from Doppler tests that blood flow becomes very restricted when passing through tight and restricted tissues and Aaron Mattes has always stated that it takes 5 seconds of holding a stretch to start to slow-down the blood flow and therefore oxygen into the very tissues that you are targeting. The results of long-hold static stretches are an ischemic and lactic acid build-up leading to muscle fatigue on the sports field. Runners World did a piece on static stretching back in November 2005, stating that those triathletes who did pre-event static stretches were more inclined to injuries then those who didn’t stretch at all. Static stretching was tiring the muscles and slowing down the athletes.

People in the industry were now finally knocking on my door to find out our secrets for success. We came up with the motto “lengthen before you strengthen” as this was seen to be the key to unlocking years of bad habits, injuries and postural dysfunction.

In late 1997 I set-up a sole proprietorship called “Therapeutic Bodyworks” with the only other trained neuromuscular therapist in Hong Kong and started to build my client base. I was lecturing at the American club, Business clubs and gyms around the city. I even set-up a stretch studio inside a bank as the bank owner Dr. Mike Murad was a fitness fanatic and insisted on all his senior staff being fit and flexible. Despite the first Asian economical collapse in 1997, SARS and bird flu, I decided to take the risk and go to the next level and take on a more corporate look.

We designed a logo around the name Stretch and thus began the life of Active Isolated Stretching back in October 1999. We kept all our stretching protocols as faithful to those that Aaron Mattes taught me at his clinic. I then invited the press to come and try for themselves and they raved about Active Isolated Stretching as the new revolution in flexibility training. I was booked out weeks ahead and was working on 50 clients a week.

Time had come to move into a bigger studio. I invited my mentor and founder of Active Isolated Stretching Aaron Mattes, over to Hong Kong to meet the press and to lecture his life’s work to the fitness industry and to help us open our new open-plan clinic. It was Aaron who insisted that we should be the first physical therapy/bodywork company to instigate the open-plan concept here in Hong Kong. In America it was commonplace.

The two major advantages of an open-plan set-up are that we all get to see who comes into the room creating a more friendly and  social environment, also it is a great advantage for the client, as several therapists can work on a single client if needs be allowing better and quicker results in lengthening tight and restricted tissues.

One of the big changes to our business here in Hong Kong is the interest from the corporate world. Outside of colds and flues, bad backs are the single biggest reason for absenteeism at work costing companies millions of wasted dollars. Lower back and neck pain has become such a chronic problem in the busy office environment from sedentary workers sitting for up to 12 hours a day in front of their screens!

My recent lectures on “Better Posture, Better function” and “Pain proofing your back at work” have become very popular and the spin-offs in terms of PR for Stretch and all the ensuing endorsements have been very successful. The head of Goldman Sachs Global Wellness division attended one of my lectures and has recommended me to teach similar programmes in London and Japan.

At present we are gearing up and working hard towards setting-up and structuring a franchise system for Stretch and hope to spread the good work of Aaron Mattes the world over.

We will keep you posted!

Now, if you really want to know my full story..... going back way back when... it's all on www.chriswatts.info