I’m all about range of motion these days and who isn’t? February, the month of Valentine’s is also a good time to give yourself the extra love you deserve. We all work hard, the subway is crowded with lunatics and winter is dark and cold. Hunching ones shoulders against the wind can cause the shoulders to tighten up. Everyone you talk to is a little sore if you ask them. Whether you have a physical job, or you’re an athlete or if you sit at a desk all day and slowly atrophy, you probably have stiff muscles. Can you touch your toes? Can you see your toes? Personally, from a lifetime on my feet, I sometimes feel like I have the body of a seventy-year-old. I resent needing to grab a piece of furniture to get up off the floor, (never mind how I got there,) or grunting when I bend over to tie my shoes.
I don’t remember exactly how, but I heard of this place called the Stretch Zone. I regularly go to acupuncture as well as stretch and exercise, but this holiday season I felt I needed extra help getting some of the kinks out. On the first consultation I knew I had found the right place. Stretching properly as you get older (and we are all technically getting older. Even as you read this…) is important. Stretching helps you prevent injury, have better workouts as well as regulates the cortisol which is a stress hormone which can make you gain weight. And your body feels younger. It does what you ask it to do. I love that.
After an informative conversation, the stretch experts threw me on one of their patented tables with custom straps that allow them to isolate one set of muscles while getting the best stretch for the others. I moaned like a Times Square hooker as he twisted my limbs like my Uncle Freddy ripping the drumstick off a Thanksgiving turkey. And it felt fantastic. We talked about where it hurts and when as the stretch expert stretched and pressed my hips, shoulders, lower back on both sides and when he was done I leapt off the table like Peter-fucking-Pan. This is not a massage – it feels more like sports medicine where they target your pain and tight muscles and teach you how to do a lot of it for yourself at home. Nor is it a massage environment. Everybody keeps their clothes on and the tables are out in the open. It’s like the best part of going to the gym without even having to work out. Over time the stretch practitioners can help you reset your resting muscle tone and maintain a healthier body with stretches you can do at home, because – even though you will want to – you can’t go every day.
Right now there is only one in NYC in Manhattan on 19th and Fifth right near Union Square. Or if you’re feeling entrepreneurial, you can open one in your own neighborhood!
