PULL IT TOGETHER
Pricy personal stretch trainers are the fitness world’s latest luxury
IT’S time to let loose.
The latest fitness craze is flexibility. Well-heeled New Yorkers are hiring private stretch trainers — in addition to regular personal trainers — and boutique studios dedicated to flexibility are popping up around the city. Lymbr, a studio dedicated to stretching, opened at 11 Jay St. in Tribeca in January, and a competitor called Stretch*d is set to debut in Flatiron in May.
“I’ve worked out all my life and used trainers but none of them spent more than five minutes on stretching,’’ says Eric Zeigler, 56, an investment manager who lives in Rowayton, Conn., and heads to Lymbr — where one-on-one sessions cost $60 for 30 minutes and $100 an hour — twice a week. “Even though I’m in good shape, I was having back issues and getting muscle spasms. This has not only helped with those problems, it’s improved my posture and increased my mobility in sports.’’
David Medlar sought out in-demand stretch trainer John McQueen — who is so elusive he asked that his face not be shown in photos — after a recent accident left Medlar with neck issues that he feared would impede his running and mountain-climbing pursuits.
“John gave me a daily routine of mobility work, and I was back to full fitness within three months,” says Medlar, a 58-year-old who lives in the West Village and is a technology executive. “Without that, there is no doubt recovery would have taken much longer.’’
Competitive tennis player Dana Duneier, 65, has also relied on McQueen, who charges $150 an hour and books home visits with clients via email, to keep him in the game.
“After a certain age, if you are athletic, the body doesn’t repair itself, and you have to help it along,’’ says Duneier, the CEO of his own marketing company, who lives on the Upper East Side. “John is very knowledgeable. People of means are just lucky enough to be able to go to someone like him.’’
It’s not just aging joints that are pushing the trend. Amanda Freeman, who founded the fitness studio SLT and is the co-founder of Stretch*d, says stretching is particularly important because New Yorkers have become such exercise junkies.
“People are addicted to boutique fitness, doing it four to seven times per week, so there is a need for something that is recovery-focused,’’ she says. “It’s also good for people who sit at a desk, hunch over a computer or travel a lot, and for the aging population. When you have someone stretching you, it doesn’t seem like work, it feels like pampering.’’ Indeed, her sessions will begin with herbal lavender eye compresses for their calming effects.
And although yoga classes also work on flexibility, devotees of stretching with a trainer maintain that the results are markedly different.
“When you take yoga, the part of your body that’s supporting you is in contraction, so you can’t really release in the same way,” says McQueen. “The only time you are totally relaxed is the last three minutes, when you are [lying down] in Shavasana.”
And McQueen says that people who stretch on their own or in a large yoga class may not be getting the maximum benefit and could be throwing their alignment out of whack.
“Assisted stretching allows the rest of the body to be completely relaxed as [the] trainer guides the client’s muscles to places they couldn’t reach alone,’’ he says. His clients agree. “I was a dancer for many years, so I’ve always tried to lengthen, but there is no way you can stretch yourself the way a trainer like John can,’’ says cosmetics entrepreneur Irene Michaels, 70, who recently started working with McQueen.
While paying hundreds of dollars for exercises to help you recover from your other expensive exercise pursuits might strike some as overly indulgent, flexible fans say it’s worth it.
“I don’t think of stretching as a luxury,’’ Zeigler says. “To me, it’s crucial.’’