Workshop: PNF Stretching Experience

Flexibility allows you to move freely and comfortably in your daily life and can also help

prevent injury during exercise. One of the ways to increase our flexibility is by stretching.

However, research suggests that not all stretching techniques are created equal.

Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, or PNF stretching, relies on reflexes to produce

deeper stretches that increase your active and passive range of motion. It is advanced

flexibility training that involves the stretching and contraction of the targeted muscle group.

Dr. Herman Kabat developed PNF stretching in the 1940s to treat neuromuscular

conditions, including polio and multiple sclerosis, as a form of rehabilitation. It is not only very

effective to increase flexibility, but it also improves muscular strength.

All PNF stretching techniques rely on stretching a muscle to its limit. Doing this triggers

the inverse myotatic reflex, a protective reflex that calms the muscle to prevent injury. PNF

causes the brain to go, ‘I don’t want that muscle to tear,’ and sends a message to let the

muscle relax a little more than it would normally. PNF increases ROM by increasing the

muscle's length and neuromuscular efficiency. So let’s relax our bodies and stretch our minds!

In this workshop, I invite you to seek the tangent between effort and relaxation, 

holding and letting go, and movement and stillness. Moving on the breath with our body

and our mind. We will be using props for support or the help of a partner.

Working on flexibility is accessible for everybody who likes to move and breathe, only

curiosity is needed.