2020 Workshops-ST4P [CANCELLED!]

*** Due to the coronavirus, all workshops in 2020 are cancelled. New workshops will be scheduled for 2021.

*** Thanks for your understanding. Please check back with us soon!

Stretch Therapy for Performance (ST4P)

Presenters: Justin Chien and James Wheatley

Date/Time: 1.5 day/12 hours total 

  • 10/2/2020 (Friday), 9am-1pm, 2pm-6pm
  • 10/3/2020 (Saturday), 1pm-5pm

Location: Shobu Aikido of Boston, 34 Allen Street, Somerville, MA 02143

Cost: 

  • Early bird (register by 9/2/2020): $399 
  • Regular (registrations from 9/3/2020): $549

Discount policy: We want you to practice Stretch Therapy consistently! When you repeat the same workshop, you attract a 50% discount off the regular price ($275). If you register for a different two-day workshop in a calendar year, you attract a 25% discount off the second workshop with either the Early Bird price ($300) or the regular price ($413) based on your registration date.

Registration:

Space is limited – sign up soon! 3 ways to register:

1) Register via PayPal: Send payment to justin.chien@gmail.com directly. Choose Personal Payment option, not Goods and Services. Please include your full name, email address, and phone number in the note section of the payment.

2) Register via Venmo: Please include your full name, email address, and phone number in the message of the payment. 

3) Register via Apple Pay: Pay with 978-549-1865. Please include your full name, email address, and phone number in the message of the payment. 

Cancellation policy: 50% refund if cancel before 9/2/2020. No refund after 9/2/2020.

Workshop confirmation: the workshop will be confirmed no later than 9/3/2020 for making your travel arrangement. 

Lodging: the workshop will be held at the Shobu Aikido dojo near the Union Square in Somerville, MA. If you stay in the area (Somerville, Cambridge, or Boston), it should be an easy commute to get to the dojo via Uber/Lyft (sorry, no MBTA subway or bus stop near by). Here are some lodging options close to the dojo for your consideration. If you choose to stay in Boston, the price will certainly go higher. 

Food: There are plenty options for food at the Union Square. The places below are all in walking distance from the dojo. 

Parking: Space will be limited on Friday, but plenty on Saturday. Please contact Stretch Therapy Boston for reserving a parking space on Friday (if still available). Please don’t park at the nearby Target store parking lot – they tow the cars regularly. Car pool or using ride-share (no nearby bus stop or metro T station) are strongly encouraged.

Clothing: The room will be warm enough for short sleeve t-shirt and shorts. Some people prefer to wear long sleeve shirt and pants. As long as you wear something that doesn’t constrain you from moving freely, you will be fine. Feel free to bring a light jacket/pants just in case. A light blanket can be useful for lying meditation. 

Got questions? Email Stretch Therapy Boston

Stretch Therapy for Performance (ST4P)

ST for Performance (ST4P) is for all women and men involved in dance, gymnastics strength training, martial arts, the pole dance world, free-runners, and Parkour practitioners.

ST4P is for anyone involved in any activity where superior active and passive flexibility is necessary. So often it is missing.

We will present solo and partner versions of most exercises. We will cover all necessary partial poses, progressions, limbering elements, and associated techniques (like fascial releases, Contract–Relax, pulsing, ballistics, etc.)  to be able to:

  • do a full squat
  • have full hip mobility
  • do a pike (legs together, face on shins)
  • do a pancake (legs apart, chest on floor)
  • have full shoulder extension and flexion
  • do a full back bend (the bridge)

Achieving a full pike and a full pancake requires stretching the calf muscles (including the often-neglected posterior fascial line), all three hamstrings, all adductors, and a small muscle in the hip called piriformis which is a surprisingly common (but often unsuspected) limiter of these fundamental movements. Practising the pike and pancake by themselves is relatively inefficient, in terms of results gained for time spent – there are better ways.

The techniques we will use to achieve the pike and the pancake are all partial poses and/or fascial techniques. The core method used is the Contract–Relax technique, as developed by our team over the last 25 years. We will also use innovative agonist–antagonist moving stretching techniques which will actively assist flatter pikes and pancakes, by activating the hip flexors and TFL in their maximally shortened positions – this provides needed strength in the fully contracted position as well as provides the brain with a novel stretch sensation. Fascial releases on gracilis and the inner hamstrings will be done on all attendees, where needed.

The full squat requires considerable ankle flexibility and hip mobility and we will show you a range of exercises that will allow you to do this movement with good foot alignment, preserved arches in the feet, and no support. On most workshops when we begin, only about half the room has a decent full squat, but by the end almost everybody does.

We will cover assistance techniques for hip internal rotation (this will complement the external rotation exercises that work piriformis, above, too).

We will practise all partial poses leading up to a full back bend. To this end we will show you effective partner stick stretches that will open the chest and shoulders, in preparation for full dislocate movements, and then add the hip flexor/quadricepspassive back bends over supports, and rib-cage mobilisation exercises so that the body is prepared for the full back bend. Solo alternatives will be taught as well. In addition, fascial releases for the diaphragm and rectus abdominis will be done for all attendees.

In the process of going through these partial poses, you will learn exactly which structures are limiting your present movement patterns, so future practise becomes very time efficient. Often, only a small muscle or narrow line of fascia is the restriction—finding and changing these are the keys to unlocking your body.

Experience has shown us that adults following gymnastic strength training regimens frequently injure themselves. We will practise a range of extremely effective rehabilitation–treatment exercises to address these kinds of problems. As well, there are a number of stretching exercise that actively assist in recovery and we will do these, too.