Flex Appeal

“Active Isolated Stretching” is the intelligent bodywork phenomenon currently taking the world by storm, and it’s mostly due to one ex-Lamma Island resident. The charismatic hairball of a man, Chris Watts, has been called the “Einstein of Stretching.” Just one week after opening his second Stretch clinic in London’s medical mile Harley Street, the Evening Standard newspaper proclaimed Watts one of the city’s 50 Most Wanted Health Gurus – and now the British press can’t get enough of him.

Bank of East Asia chairman David Li says that thanks to Watts’ AIS technique, he is “no longer in pain and can move freely and comfortably once again, without the aid of a walking stick.” Christine Loh calls Watts, “the best-trained person in his field to help diagnose and solve problems arising from a lifetime of poor posture or injury,” and Betty Kadoorie calls him “a necessity, not a luxury.” His first London clients included Lulu and Joyce Ma, and in July, his staff was “surprised when Woody Allen walked through the door.”

OK, we get the picture. So what is the fuss all about? Watts’s supremely logical technique, Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), has saved clients from painful invasive surgery, helped the infirm to walk without aid, increased mobility for those with neuromuscular diseases, and helped the able-bodied remove recurring pains. Due to the runaway success of AIS, Watts has inadvertently propelled a showering of breakaway AIS clinics around the city, many run by former employees - a fact that he acknowledges with a pensive pause. So what’s the big deal with stretching anyway?

Cats Do It

Stretching. Seems a little obvious doesn’t it? But really it’s not so simple. AIS was developed by US sports scientist Aaron Mattes (Watts’ teacher). It is an anomaly, not quite fitting into any therapeutic category, but containing elements of physiotherapy, osteopathy, and the Alexander Technique. Stretches, says Watts, are precisely designed so that “the muscles being stretched are neurologically switched off or relaxed, due to the opposite muscles being engaged or contracted.”

Significantly, in AIS a stretch is only held for two seconds. “This is safer as it can prevent an eccentric contraction or ‘push/pull’ feeling that can potentially tear tissues. A famously good example of such bad stretching was the ‘ballistic method,’ where small children were made to bounce painfully on the hockey pitch in freezing cold weather,” says Watts. Another benefit is that the short stretches flush the muscles with blood, oxygenating them and moving out accumulated toxins from deep in the tissue – something Watts, with his fully oxygenated workspace and weekly Hydro Health visits is passionate about.

Tried and Tested

After spending my life dabbling in dance, gymnastics, swimming, and yoga, flexibility was not an issue for me. Why did I need to stretch more? Like everyone, there were those little tweaks we all learn to live with: a pain in the neck, a stubborn hip, recurring migraines. As I walked through the door of the open plan clinic, Watts had me sized up. He pointed out that one leg was shorter than the other (not unusual), rooted in an unbalanced pelvis, which he says was likely giving me hip problems. He also began correcting my neck irregularities. By the end of the session, I had increased mobility in my hip, and had a list of exercises to practice at home. I felt no pain throughout the session - instead, I felt calm and relaxed, with a new fascination with and awareness of my own body.

Mile-high Flex