Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) is a technique that helps people maximize the effectiveness of stretching without causing the sort of discomfort that keeps a lot of us away from it.
AIS is a specific stretching program developed by American Aaron Mattes over 30 years ago. Mattes is a registered Kinesiotherapist and Licensed Massage Therapist who has dedicated his practice to helping both professional and amateur athletes become more agile and less injured. His technique uses four basic principles:
- Isolate the muscle to be stretched.
- Repeat the stretch eight to 10 times.
- Hold each stretch for no more than two seconds.
- Exhale on the stretch; inhale on the release.
AIS does not only help athletes to become softer/more flexible, but it can greatly relieve suffering from back pain, neck pain, tension in shoulders and other ailments such as tennis elbow, a sore back from too much golf, sore knees from the rigours of squash. It also help to correct people’s posture so they can stand proud and tall (for CEOs or models). The benefits of such an approach shall be better “experienced” rather than “explained”. The beneficiaries of this technique including some of the biggest names in business, politics, sports and modeling industry. Mr.Li Ka Shing, David Li of Bank of East Asia, Julian Robertson (founder of Tiger fund), actors such as Danial Wu, martial arts novalist Louis Cha Leung Yung (查良鏞(金庸)), and our own Grand Master Wan.
Specialists from Practical Wing Chun Shanghai learnt this technique through their certified training program and now offer this wonderful service to Shanghai. It is highly complimentary to the Wing Chun training.
