Designed for Constant Feedback
The late Jennifer Stacey, an exercise physiologist/ biomechanist, was the owner of Peak Performance Pilates in San Francisco, and worked with a post-polio patient who has severe osteoarthritis in his upper body and used walking sticks to ambulate. “He can do so many more of the Pilates repertoire when we use a Stretch-eze band,” Stacey explained. “It allows him to keep his legs together and controlled; otherwise I have to hold them or we have to tie them together and lace on a wedge. All in all, it makes his Pilates sessions much more productive.”
The Stretch-eze® isn’t just for people with physical challenges; it has also helped athletes like Olympic-gold-medalist-sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross. According to her Pilates mentor, Wendy LeBlanc-Arbuckle, co-founder of Pilates Center of Austin and international leader in embodied movement education, “the band completely transformed her ability to decompress to relax and to allow more mind/body connection. We talked about opening her feet so she was using her entire foot [when she ran] and how that related to finding core coordination throughout her whole body. The Stretch-eze was crucial in allowing her to sense that relationship and use her legs differently, by distributing the work through her fascial system. She could then sense the interrelationship between her feet, inner thighs and the front of her spine to her inner ear. This shifted her habitual pattern of over-using her knees, hips and back, which had led to injury in the past.”
LeBlanc-Arbuckle taught Richards-Ross to “stand in the band” with one end of the loop wrapped around her shoulders and the other wrapped around her feet, which allowed the athlete to gently press her arms and feet into the band to “create space” in the joints and fascia. They also used the Stretch-eze for mat moves, including Roll-Up and Single-Leg Roll-Up, Leg Circles, Open-Leg Rocker, Side Kicks and Spinal Twist. “The Stretch-eze changed everything for her!”
PILATES IN THE LOOP
One place you’ll find the Stretch-eze in use is at Pilates on Fifth in New York. It’s a studio where the Stretch-eze has been used extensively to make mat classes more accessible to students, especially if they’re deconditioned or have tightness in certain areas. While other props add challenge, the studio finds the support and sensory feedback of the Stretch-eze completely unique.
For beginners, it helps students learn the proper starting point for moves, understand the relationship of their core to the rest of the body and feel the opposition when a teacher gives them a cue. This helps them gain more confidence in being able to perform a movement and keep up with the skill level of the class. As stated by previous studio owner Kimberly Corp: “Pilates is designed to mobilize the spine and create strength and flexibility. The Stretch-eze lets you know whether you’re doing a move right or wrong. Even something as simple as Spine Twist, when you use the Stretch-eze, you can feel whether you’re working deeply enough and can self-correct.”
“Often the idea of stabilization, which is used a lot in Pilates, can be misinterpreted,” explains Mountain View, CA-based Teresa Maldonado Marchok, physical therapist, BASI Pilates teacher and creator of BoneSmart Pilates. “People tighten and become rigid rather than create flexibility in the rest of the body and rib cage so things aren’t locked. But the Stretch-eze provides pressure to give you feedback but also gives your student or client a direct experience of dynamic, energetic pulling toward or away from the body center.”
For veteran students, the band can slow down their movements so they stay engaged and mindful, while avoiding “cheating”.
HELPING REHAB PATIENTS
Naomi Rayman, owner of Another Planet Pilates in Kentwood, CA, uses it with clients who have joint replacements or tendinitis, noting that its construction allows for gentle and forgiving stretching. “With a yoga strap there’s more of a pulling or yanking, but the Stretch-eze delivers an encompassing full-body experience, and the relationship between the upper and lower body is more complete. How many times have we seen people stretch their hamstrings with a strap and their shoulders are tight, their heads are up off the mat and their necks are not in a great position? The average Pilates client is working against the equipment, not with it, but the Stretch-eze teaches them to partner with the band.”
Rayman works with an elderly woman with a lot of proprioceptive difficulty after having a hip and knee replacement. “When on the mat, she can’t sense her extremities and doesn’t know where her feet are. So if I set her up for Bridge using the Stretch-eze, she can feel the medial and lateral edges of her feet, and knows her relationship in space and to her core in a different way.”
WHO ELSE SHOULD USE A STRETCH-EZE?
While Stretch-eze seems to be most popular with Pilates and yoga teachers, physical therapists, athletes and dancers, the multipurpose prop can easily be incorporated into any classes that involve stretching or resistance. And because this tool provides support, stabilization, feedback and challenge, it’s great for everyone from beginners to seasoned students, healthy exercisers to those recovering from injury, and older clients to elite athletes training for an event.
AT HOME, DURING TRAVEL
Using the Stretch-eze at home is the perfect complement to Pilates class work. Kimm Miller, owner of Shillington, PA-based Moxie Pilates, uses the band with a Pilates client and ultra-marathoner in her late 50s for cross-training and rehabilitation for a hip injury and osteopenia. “We love using it for Swan, Single-Leg Stretch and Double-Leg Swan,” Miller says. “Using the Stretch-eze strengthens her back and gives her feedback on alignment and positioning as well as support.” Miller says her client also uses the prop at home on days she doesn’t visit the studio. “I’m very hands-on with my clients. The Stretch-eze supports my instruction when they use it on their own -they can feel when a move doesn’t feel the same way they learned in class.”
You don’t need a full one-hour workout to get the benefits. Rayman teaches clients to use the band with their morning stretches. Wrap one end of the band under your feet and the other around your shoulders and then simply stand up straight, she advises. “I love stretching up and rising into it you feel the lift up the front and the waterfall down your back,” she adds. “It’s perfect for clients who have rounded shoulders and less connection with their rib cages. And it’s a great posture reminder during the day.”
“That is the brilliance of the Stretch-eze,” LeBlanc- Arbuckle points out. “It helps us to feel human movement potential, rather than that we’re objects that need to be fixed and trained.”
Extracts fro an article originally published in Pilates Style Magazine.