Fascial Stretch Therapy - Second Edition

The beautiful new edition of this highly successful book, written by Ann and Chris Frederick, directors of the Stretch to Win® Institute, is packed with theory and practice, including a host of beautifully illustrated assisted stretches.

Fascial Stretch Therapy™, Second edition is a practical and highly applicable manual for any massage therapist, movement instructor, physical or occupational therapist, athletic or sports trainer, fitness instructor or osteopath - in fact for any hands-on practitioners who wants to learn new skills and improve therapeutic outcomes. It clearly demonstrates how FST™ assessment, treatment, and training are used in a variety of common circumstances encountered in manual therapy and athletic training.

What's new for the second edition...

Discusses a very brief history of a still expanding and evolving new industry of assisted stretching. It also covers the negative aspects of this trend, including the lack of assessments and specificity and common stretching methods. Approaches are listed so you can compare and contrast.

Includes a new Chapter 2 with updates of the highest quality evidence-based research useful to the field of assisted stretching. It includes the authors' own research about the effects of FST™ on chronic nonspecific low back pain as well as a discussion about a recent systematic review of the acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals.

Lists contraindications and indications for FST™ along with new updates to reflect current understandings (e.g. about Golgi tendon organs) with supporting references.

Shows how this method will save you time when forming a working hypothesis that will quickly be proven or disproven so that you will have enough time to develop other hypotheses that you can test for efficacy, all within a single session.

Includes new photographs and artwork along with new titles to reflect the change in nomenclature from the use of the term 'fascial line(s)' to 'fascial net(s)'.

Ann Frederick is a former professional dancer, having grown up in her mother's dance studio, starting to dance at the age of four. She has practiced manual therapy for over 20 years, specifically in the field of flexibility training, focusing on her brand of assisted individual stretching, group stretch and dance instruction.

Ann originally created a unique system of neuromyofascial manual therapy called Fascial Stretch Therapy™ for the USA Men's Olympic Wrestling Team of 1996. Besides improving professional athletic performance, she soon discovered that FST also rapidly helped other clients with a variety of chronic, unresponsive pain conditions, strength imbalances and other common neuromusculoskeletal disorders.

Ann and her husband Chris are both certified by Thomas Myers in Kinesis Myofascial Integration and are the authors of the popular book Stretch to Win. Ann and Chris directed their own highly successful center for Fascial Stretch Therapy, physical therapy/physiotherapy, Structural Integration, chiropractic, acupuncture, sports massage and Pilates for nearly 20 years. They are now Directors of the Stretch to Win Institute at www.stretchtowin.com, where they offer certification training workshops in Fascial Stretch Therapy.

Chris Frederick has been a physical therapist/physiotherapist since 1989, focusing on manual therapy - particularly with integration of Fascial Stretch Therapy and Kinesis Myofascial Integration - along with personalized movement prescription to restore function. He has an extensive background in dance, both as a professional dancer of classical ballet, as well as being a practitioner in the specialty of dance physical therapy/physiotherapy.

Chris is also well versed in the ancient movement and healing arts of tai chi and qigong. He is a coauthor with Thomas Myers of the chapter on stretching in the seminal book "Fascia: The tensional network of the human body" edited by Robert Schleip, Leon Chaitow et al.

Chris and his wife Ann Frederick are both certified by Thomas Myers in Kinesis Myofascial Integration and are the authors of the popular book "Stretch to Win". Chris and Ann directed their own highly successful center for Fascial Stretch Therapy, physical therapy/physiotherapy, Structural Integration, chiropractic, acupuncture, sports massage and Pilates for nearly 20 years. They are now Directors of the Stretch to Win Institute at www.stretchtowin.com, where they offer certification training workshops in Fascial Stretch Therapy.