It wasn’t until 2022 that I seriously thought about stretching as an activity to which I could dedicate 50-60 minutes. That’s when I came across studios offering dedicated stretching classes as well as private stretching sessions. ‘What’s the big deal?’, I thought to myself. Like many people, stretching was something I did before and after a run for a couple of minutes or to warm up before a HIIT class.
“Most of us pump weights at a gym to build muscles to achieve a more toned physique, but stretching gives us good posture, which is also aesthetically pleasing,” says Dina Zoa, who owns Stretch It Out, a stretching studio in Dubai.
Dina admits that back in 2018 when she first started talking about the benefits of stretching, people would laugh and make fun of her. It took a pandemic and lockdown for people to sit up and take notice. During that time Dina hosted a 30-day challenge online and had participants joining from different parts of the world, “We stretched together every day for an hour and by the end of that period, many of them told me how it helped them overcome depression and anxiety because in those moments when you’re in a deep stretch focusing on a group of muscles and doing mindful breathing, you forget about everything else.”
The benefits of the practice extend beyond elevating moods. It can play a key role in injury recovery and prevention, improving blood circulation, lymphatic drainage and our quality of sleep. One of the mistakes many of us make after pulling a muscle, for example, is to stop moving, but continued movement under the instruction of a stretch coach or physiotherapist is essential to increase blood supply to the injured part to aid recovery.
Oksana Konoplia has been a yoga instructor for more than a decade and recently started teaching a warm deep stretch class at Zoga Yoga in Dubai. “Stretching is always a smooth and soft practice. And it’s more beneficial, I believe, when you have a warm environment because our bodies open faster,” she says.
The room where the class is conducted is set to a balmy 32oC. The moves vary between passive and dynamic poses. The former is held for close to two minutes, which is enough time for the stretch to reach deeper networks of connective tissues, encouraging joints to open and muscles to relax. Dynamic exercises focus on body mobility and increases one’s range of motion.
But whether it’s your first time or you’re a seasoned stretcher, “make sure you are hydrated before, during and after the class, and avoid it all together if you suffer from blood pressure problems – especially low blood pressure – and heart conditions,” cautions Oksana.
A recent trend on social media pokes fun at how our bodies seem to flip a switch the moment we turn 40 – something as basic as bending down to pick up a pebble or climbing a ladder results in an injury. These memes always give me a good laugh, but I realised there must be some truth to it after a friend told me she got a catch in her neck simply from sneezing!
Dina points out that injuries often occur not from sports or extreme physical activities, but from everyday tasks, and she adds, “This usually happens because tightness and tension have been accumulating over the years and one fine day it has to find an outlet.”
There’s no right time to begin a stretching practice, nor do you need to be extremely flexible from the get-go. “Stretching can be adjusted to suit different levels,” says Dina. Her studio offers assisted stretching (private sessions) and active stretching (group classes). In the first, the client is prone on a massage bed and a coach uses the PNF technique (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation), which was developed by physiotherapists. During the session, you will be asked to inhale and contract your muscles and then exhale and relax so that the coach can manipulate and push your muscles further. This technique helps the brain connect with the specific muscle being worked on to increase its range of motion. Active stretching is performed on a yoga mat and students are guided by a coach through a series of exercises, both dynamic and passive, with adjustments being made by the coach to improve students’ postures as and when required.
Babies stretch naturally several times a day, a basic movement we tend to forget as adults, who sit hunched in front of computers for eight to nine hours for five days a week – a condition commonly known as Office Syndrome. But don’t fret, there’s a simple solution for it. Begin a regular stretching practice today and note how your body alignment, posture and flexibility improve within a few weeks.
For more information, visit @stretchitout_studio and zoga.ae
