Ann Frederick - Fascial Stretch Therapy (true epub)

When I was a young girl, I had a premonition that I was destined to create something that would unite art and science. I was unsure what it would be or when it would happen, but I knew it was my calling. I also knew it would change the way people looked at the topic and that it would eventually spread worldwide. When it occurred, the development of FST felt like a combination of divine guidance and pure necessity.

FST has been a blessing beyond words. People may question why I would want to teach a technique I had developed and lose the exclusivity of being the only person to offer it. My response has always been that when we are given a gift it is our responsibility to give back. How could I not share something that has brought so much joy and hope to myself and so many others?

From age of four until I was 40, I spent my life in a dance studio. I was both dancing professionally and teaching from the young age of 14. Movement and the wonder of the body have been a part of my daily life for a very long time. My other passion was the science of the human body. I took every course offered on the subject in school and read as much as I could about it. In high school, I distinctly remember going home and learning all 206 bones in one evening.

I spent many years training dancers in flexibility and not one was ever injured on my watch. I attributed it to the focus in my classes on extensive flexibility training to which I dedicated at least 30 minutes during the warm-up component in each class. In the dance world, extreme flexibility along with strength is a non-negotiable requirement.

While teaching a group stretch class at a local gym, I had an epiphany. I looked out over my class, which was filled to capacity, and realized that there was a great need in people to become more flexible, indeed senior citizens made a big chunk of the class. This new awareness of the general population needing and, more importantly, wanting help with their flexibility was eye opening and very exciting. My vision was becoming clearer once I enrolled at Arizona State University (ASU), getting my degree and studying academic dance with a focus in kinesiology.

As life would have it, at the end of one of my first stretch classes, a guy came up to me and said, They need what you are doing here at the ASU athletic department.

It was an opportunity to work with college athletes from 26 different sports.

The journey of creating Fascial Stretch Therapy began in the summer of 1995 in the weight training room at ASU. It occurred on the bench press when I tied a weight belt around a football players leg to hold it still while I stretched him. I realized that if I could get proper leverage on this big guy by getting him up off the floor and using a stabilizing strap, I was truly on to something. And the rest, as they say, is history. Each time I had someone on the treatment table in my private practice, I developed the new method a bit more. Between my studies and my private practice I was working upwards of 18 hours a day. I was on the football field in the morning taking the team through group stretches or in the weight room working with individual athletes. I worked for several hours before class and then again after class each afternoon. I would then go to my office and spend time honing the art of my newfound career. It was not unusual for me to spend ten hours a day stretching individual clients.