What is Kinstretch?
Kinstretch is defined as a movement enhancement system that develops maximum body control, flexibility and USABLE ranges of motion.
Kinstretch is about giving you MORE MOVEMENT OPTIONS. That is more options to be efficient, fast, powerful, and most importantly safe.
One of the most crucial differences between Kinstretch and other approaches is utilizing an active range of motion or mobility training to build your foundation.
Instead of owning a yoga pose or getting a better position in your squat, we are improving the OVERALL capacity of your hips. When this happens the yoga pose gets easier and the bottom of that squat is deeper and stronger.
Prerequisites
First, we must clearly state what a prerequisite means in this context. Let’s define a prerequisite as “the required capacity to perform a movement safely.”
Furthermore, if you can not actively achieve a position without weight, then adding weight is not a quality long term strategy.
Exercise is an invention. The average human lifestyle currently does not prepare the body for the majority of exercises being performed in the gym. Here is a quote to portray the importance of prerequisites within a Crossfit scenario.
“If you have a room full of 100 random people and you say the exercise for the day is overhead squats, the fact that you’re clearing 100 people randomly to do overhead squats says a lot about how well you understand prerequisites. … give me a random sample of 100 people, I’d say maybe 5 or 10 have what is necessary to do that safely.” – Dr. Andreo Spina
The goal of Kinstretch is never to REPLACE Crossfit, Soul Cycle, yoga, or anything else you love to do.
Our mission is to make sure your body is prepared, maintained, and set up for the highest level of success possible.
Owning a range of motion leads to new PR’s.
The assessment portion of our Elite Video Membership program is an absolute game-changer especially when we are talking about prerequisites. Here is a picture of one of the assessments we incorporate for shoulder rotation
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The goal is to show as many active degrees of rotation of the shoulder without the shoulder blade elevating, spinal positioning changing, or elbow compensating.
Now, look at the pictures below showing the compensations. If we think in terms of building a foundation then being able to display the necessary control and strength to first get there makes a lot of sense.
I show you this particular range of motion because chances are you or someone you know has had shoulder pain in the front of the shoulder from bench pressing.
When was the last time you were ASSESSED?
What should you be prioritizing? Is your approach successful? Is it time to progress?
Our assessment process takes a community-driven Kinstretch program to another level of individuality ensuring you have everything you need to accomplish your goals. We always strive to make sure you FEEL the improvement but will also be there to point at the significant correlation between the scientific OUTCOMES you assess.
Dr. Andreo Spina the creator of FRS and Kinstretch eloquently laid out this process:
- Determine Physical Capacities
- This is our assessment.
- Program within those capacities
- This is the supplementary strength and conditioning work we provide including regressions and progressions.
- Program additional work to expand those capacities where desired/needed.
- This is the work we do in class and double up on individually ensuring you are improving your exact needs that were highlighted from our assessment.
- Repeat.
- At the end of our 8-week program you reassess and determine the success of your hard work. This serves as our guide for the next 8 weeks as you progress to the next level.
This outline is what I think about when people ask me What is Kinstretch?
I do not know of a group fitness class that runs on the outline above. My students who have Yoga backgrounds will tell you the same. The truth is most personal trainers are not operating on this level of efficiency.
Kinstretch Results
The results of our Kinstretch program could be that you feel that your shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore.
The scientific outcome could be that your shoulder rotation has increased by 15 degrees with significant full range control and you have added 15 lbs to your shoulder press.
We are proud to say our number one goal is for our students to #DoAnything and with the proper progression accompanied by the right amount of work you can do just that.
Mobility is Strength.
Kinstretch is oftentimes referred to as strength training for your joints. Like any statement, this means something unique to everyone but we do like it for a simple translation to someone new to mobility training.
It is hard work just like anything that provides a return on investment.
When Kinstretch was first created I remember thinking to myself…. Maybe the word stretch should not be in the name. I go back and forth on this all the time.
It’s inevitable that the first question people have is whether Kinstretch is like yoga.
Yoga makes you better at Yoga.
Kinstretch makes you better at life, especially your yoga practice.
Breathing with Kinstretch
For many people just taking the time to consciously breathe is an absolute game-changer. When I coach breathing we are going deep in the details.
We are discussing the anatomy of the expansion, the implementation of external and internal cues, and the multiple options to provide variability. We are talking about strength and literally repping out curls for the diaphragm (Primary Breathing Muscle).
I do everything I can as the coach to make a positive impact right now and even more importantly providing the knowledge and understanding of how to replicate this for future success.
Kinstretch is Preventative Healthcare
The last major component that really helps us define Kinstretch is the preventive aspect. The truth is there is no such thing as injury prevention only injury mitigation.
Kinstretch is designed to prepare for the inevitable.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic condition of the joints, affecting approximately 27 million Americans. The ever-growing research continues to credit strength training and daily movement as the best way to combat OA and many other common conditions.
As Dr. Spina says “Force is the language of cells” and “If you do not use it, you lose it.”
Kinstretch is the systematic implementation of internal and external loading to maintain and improve your joints. Its never too late or early to start.
To recap, taking Kinstretch with me is a specific application of scientific principles based on a thorough individual assessment. You are not doing a random flow the teacher decided but a structured progression of different movements geared towards improving your base program.
Now that we have gone through the big picture of what a Kinstretch class with MTS is…. the next question is what is the actual movement like? Instead of describing it, we want to have you experience it.
Here’s a sample class on us:
Our Elite Video Membership gives you access to our assessment tutorial, and full library mobility classes including our shoulder and hip mobility guide.
Try a Kinstretch class on us with our free 3-day trial.
