You are about to learn what your pain, stiffness and weakness are trying to tell you... and better yet, how to REVERSE the process, getting yourself in the shape of your life!
And you can try it at no risk; just scroll to the bottom for class times and info.
Why aren’t you functioning as well as you could? Basically, because you trained yourself not to. You see, your body is an adaptation machine: it adapts to the demands you put on it. That’s how our ancestors survived. When conditions changed, they could cope. And that’s what your body is trying to do; it’s specializing in doing what you tell it to.
Sit a lot? You become expert at sitting. That means tight lower hamstrings, hip flexors, chest muscles and neck flexors. Unfortunately, they aren’t strong, because they aren’t working much, just adapting to the positions you hold.
It also means weak quads, glutes, lower and upper back muscles, and neck extensors., because they are the partners or antagonists to the tight muscles. When one muscle shortens, its antagonist has to stretch; otherwise you’d be locked in a position where neither muscle will let the other do what it wants. And this situation is problematical, because you are now full of muscle imbalances, which can cause you all kinds of trouble, and are injuries waiting to happen.
What kind? How about joint pain! Muscles move you by pulling on bones. A muscle imbalance means a joint is being distorted, because the muscle that should be stabilizing the joint is too weak.
Muscle pain, too, is frequently due to muscle imbalances. Pain and strength use the same neural pathways; and pain is often a signal that the muscles involved are too compromised to do their job. In fact, a lot of musculo-skeletal pain is really priceless information about what needs attention, but we treat it as an annoyance, because we’re “just too busy” with more important things. Then, one day, your body breaks, just like anything else that you misused long enough.
And now it’s time for drugs or invasive operations, or maybe just dumbing down your life to accommodate your reduced functionality.
So sitting for long periods of time is bad – we know that. But so are lots of other things we do. Repetitive motion injuries? More muscle imbalances. Slump over? More back pain (not to mention poorer breathing, less energy and more instability).
And I could go on. But let’s get to the good stuff : how do you fix it, or just get even better than you are now.
Everyone knows we are supposed to stretch. It’s all over the media. But when, how, how often? And although stretching feels good after we do it, sometimes we don’t do the best stretches for what we want. And then you have to do cardio and strength training, too. Who has the time and expertise?
You do. By incorporating resistance in your stretching, you can strength train, cardio train and stretch all at once. With Ki-Hara Resistance Stretching, you actively tense the muscles that you then stretch. And the resistance is where the magic happens.
In conventional strength training, weights, machines, bands or your own passive body mass generate the resistance. In Ki-Hara, the stretcher generates both the resistance and the force to overcome it, doubling the effectiveness of the workout. Since we resist through the stretch phase and through the strength phase, we are always stretching and strengthening the involved muscles. In addition, the muscles involved in stretching and strengthening the target muscles are themselves being strengthened and stretched. When the muscle(s) are stretching the target muscle, they are being strengthened, and vice versa.
Ki-Hara uses a system of 16 different stretches that target all the major muscle groups of the body. The exercises are set up in pairs so that you first work a muscle group and then work its antagonist (in this system, balancing) muscle group. This allows you to maintain a high level of effort while reducing or eliminating rest periods. Ki--Hara can provide a high intensity, low impact cardio workout. The fact that the system is set up in circuit training fashion means that this demand can be sustained to elevate heart rate. And you get FUNCTIONAL core training, because when one side of your body works against the other, or your arms work against your legs, your core has to work to stabilize you. So EVERY exercise is a core exercise, at no extra charge!
That's why this is the breakthrough fitness system that Olympic and professional athletes use to elevate performance and prevent injury.
It's also safe enough for the elderly, and for people with issues. It can be done almost anywhere. In less than an hour, you've started a process tha will give you strength, flexiblity and cardio training, while producing massive improvements in core strength and stability.
AND it will show you how to troubleshoot your body to prevent or rehab injuries. Oh, and almost no equipment required, so you can do it anywhere, anytime.
Sounds too good to be true? Check out these frequently asked questions and see for yourself.
Why is Ki-Hara Resistance Stretching the perfect health and fitness system for me, whether I'm looking to build long lean muscles, improve athletic performance, reduce the chances of injury, address joint and muscle issues, or upgrade my range of mortion, balance and stability?
To answer that, let’s see how Ki-Hara works: you tense a muscle group, and then use other muscles to force the tensed muscle group to stretch. That is the key, you stretch muscles that are resisting. All the advantages flow from that. In fact, let’s try a stretch. You can do this sitting, standing or in a lunge position; this will vary the core workout as the less stable your position is, the harder your core will work.
Raise your left arm to the side of your body so that you forearm is parallel to the floor, and bend the elbow 90 degrees so that your hand is pointing to the ceiling.
Reach across your body with your other hand and grab your left elbow. Inhale deeply.
Now exhale slowly as you pull your left elbow towards your right shoulder, while you resist with the left arm. At the end of the range that feels good to you, inhale slowly as you pull the left elbow back to the starting position, resisting with the right hand.
Well, I can see how that would produce long, lean muscles.
Exactly. You are stretching a muscle through its full range of motion, lengthening it and making it stronger at the same time. In fact, resisting while forcing the muscles to lengthen actually produces the highest level of demand on them, and demand level determines fitness level.
Imagine you’re curling a dumbbell, the heaviest you can handle. Now someone hands you one that’s almost twice as heavy, helps you curl it up, and tells you to lower it by yourself. You can! That’s the essence of resistance stretching, where the muscle is lengthening under tension. You can generate almost twice as much resistance as you can strength. This is a function of muscle physiology.
How can it be so safe if it generates such a high demand? What if I’m not in good shape?
The resistance protects the muscle from overstretching or tearing, and it stabilizes the joints involved. And if you’re not in good shape, you can’t generate that much strength to stretch the muscles; the system automatically adjusts to your fitness level. This is why I can teach the same stretches to elite athletes and seniors: each stretcher has complete control over the range, the intensity and the duration. You decide what is appropriate for you. In fact, that’s a huge benefit – you HAVE to pay attention to your body. That’s how you re-establish the mind/muscle connection, which makes it easier to then do other things too. And there are different versions of the stretches, so you can decide which one is best for you. I don't fit people to the system; I fit the system to people.
I can see how athletes would benefit.
The 12 time Olympic medalist swimmer Dara Torres calls this system the “secret weapon” that allowed her to break the American record in the 100m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics, at the age of 41! And Beijing gold medalist gymnast Nastia Liukin used Ki-Hara to rehab from injuries that she thought were going to prevent her from competing! NBA, MLB, NHL and all kinds of Olympians have used Ki-Hara to prevent injury while supercharging performance. The power, speed and accuracy of a muscle’s contraction is directly proportional to its ability to lengthen under tension. The more tension it can generate while getting longer, and the longer it can get while resisting, the more forcefully and efficiently the muscle can shorten.
But what if I’m not an athlete?
You may not be a competitive athlete, but we’re all athletes in the quality of life marathon. Wouldn’t you like to be stronger, leaner, more efficient and less susceptible to pain and injury?
Tell me more about preventing or dealing with pain or injury.
Straining or pulling muscles happens when you overload them; weaker muscles are most susceptible because they can't balance or control the stronger antagonist muscle. And chronically stronger muscles will tend to weaken the balancing muscles even more by a process called reciprocal inhibition; when a muscle contracts, it inhibits the balncing muscle to keep it from contracting as much. Otherwise, you'd be locked in position as the two muscles fight each other. Once you've released the chronic muscle tension in the stronger muscle and strengthened the weaker muscle, they can work together better, and your joints can re-align in the way they were meant to be.
Sounds good. But why can’t I just do other exercises?
A well designed exercise program is a great idea, but here are the Ki-Hara advantages. There are 16 different stretches, that target all the major muscle groups. The exercises are set up in pairs, where you work a group, and then its balancing group or antagonist. (This is called a superset.) So we would work the quads, and then the hamstrings. Now you can start to diagnose where your imbalances are, so you know what needs the most attention. And because you have to generate the resistance, as well as the force to overcome it, it's more efficient than using machines, weights or bands to generate resistance for you to overcome.
Won't I get bulky?
Not unless you are willing to put together a nutritional and supplement program to give yourself the raw materials you need to build massive muscle and manipulate your hormone levels. Bulking up is a lot harder than most people who haven't done it realize.
It sounds great. But what if I don't like it?
To insure your satisfaction, you can register to try a class with no risk - if you choose not to continue, there's no charge. Several of our classes are full, but there are openings Thursdays at 10 AM, and Saturdays at 9 AM. Or. if you can get 5-8 people together, we'll schedule a class for you! Classes are limited to 8; so call soon to ensure availabilty. Classes last about an hour while you're learning the system. Come dressed in workout clothes and bring your water bottle; we'll supply purified, alkaline water for your workout.