Episode 60 - The Stretch Zone Effect Explained: Science-Backed Assisted Stretching for Athletes & Pickleball Players

Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Christana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Feeling tight after pickleball? Workouts are just everyday life. It's time to experience the Stretch Zone Effect. A science-backed approach to assisted stretching that helps improve mobility, increase flexibility, and keep your body moving at its best. At Stretch Zone, trained professionals help your body stretch further than you can on your own. Move better. Recover fastic. Play longer. Check it out today at StretchZone.com. Hey, Christana. Hi, Mike. How are you? Good. So we just had a great podcast. Yes. So we're going to kind of fill you in on what the podcast is coming up. What you're going to hear. I mean, visual. There'll be a little visual with it. We did little videos with it. But I think the neat part with this podcast was another health benefit of pickleball. I mean, we really try to find things that are going to make your game better, make you healthier, live longer. I mean, and we're around these great people we keep meeting in this industry. And you do really want to prevent any injuries. And this actually could help prevent injuries. Or if you have injuries, it will actually definitely get you back in the game. It will. It will. Definitely. And the study, the Stretch Zone effect. Danny reached out to you, and then we watched his study, and we had to come do a podcast. Yeah. Because, you know, we've been talking about feet. We've been talking about safety glasses. You know, this is just another avenue. We're not just about health in our podcast, but we also play it, and we see the injuries and things that are happening. Oh, yeah, like your knee. I bet you really do need to come in and have them try it. I really do. Or Hawaii. Yeah, absolutely. It's terrible because now I can't play. I play every day, and I play Bedell. But it stopped you. I got to play very light. And so it's really frustrating. And I could actually be injuring myself more. Well, and then what we kind of found out what's nice about this, and the study shows that you will move better, reduce discomfort, improve sleep, which is, I think, a lot of people have problems with, and increase energy. And if you look at the study, you can go to the StretchZone.com, and the study's there to kind of prove that. You know, I think they had like 40 people. Yeah. Isolated study. So, I mean, it's really good. Yeah. You guys got it. You have to. And, again, what we got out of this is it's free. Guys, come. You get your first consultation. Well, it's free, the first consultation. First one. Yeah, it's not free forever. I mean, they are a business. They have over 400 of these, though. Yep. That was really fascinating. And this wasn't a business that was a roundtable. It said, let's just start a stretch company. When you go to watch this documentary, you're going to actually learn about the owner, the actual founder that did this. Oh, yeah. You got to stay tuned for that because it's interesting how that actually started the whole StretchZone franchise. But we actually had some great people. The great people on today. Yeah, we had Danny and we had Russell on. They are in three different locations, and they will go into that and tell you which locations they're at, even though there's more in Colorado, but they're more on the southern side of Colorado, like Littleton and stuff. Yeah, but they're going to travel. They're going to be at some of our events that we're having coming up, our new networking that we'll be talking more about as we keep getting into it. But you know the best part of this I found out today? What? They're going to make your head smaller. Oh, really? Is that possible? They're going to stretch your ears or something, and they're going to make your headphones all fit. They're going to make yours bigger. Something's going to happen. Good. But anyway, just joking. My head's a big head. Just joking. Yeah, I had to get extra large headphones. Yes, they still don't even fit. Yeah, I can hear it. That's why I can still hear stuff outside of that, right? I know, right? Yes. Just joking. Hey, we love you all, our Pickleballers, next-door listeners. Thank you for supporting us, following us. There's a lot of great stuff coming your way from us. Yeah, please stay tuned. It's really a good podcast. DM us if you'd like to hear more or more things. Some people have. We actually had somebody asking. That's why I was trying to mention the names. Of course, I mess them up, but we'll try to- She always looks at me. I look at her like, hey- Then I have to be the one that messes them up. Yeah, that way I can just look at her like, I didn't say that. Yeah. But anyway, long story short, we love you guys. DM us. We will listen to you. If you want more or something, we will find out. We're in the Pickleball world. Yeah, and if you want something to be where we go over it in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, definitely DM us. DM us. We'd like to put you on here, too. If you have a good story, too, call us. DM us. We'd love to put you on and talk about your Pickleball story. Or even email us at info at pickleballersnextdoor.com. Yeah, and go to our website, pickleballersnextdoor.com. Exactly. I got something right, huh? Yeah, woo-hoo. Okay. Have a great day. Thank you, guys. Bye-bye. Hi, Mike. How are you doing, Krisanna? Good. Good. Hey, we're here at Stretch Zone, and we are here with Dani Dotson, and she is the Regional Director of three stores. Is that correct? Yes, so I'm the Regional Director for Stretch Zone Littleton, Stretch Zone South Glen, and Stretch Zone Parker. Busy person. Very busy. We have really good staff to be busy with. That's good, though. That's really good. And we met you last summer. Yeah. And we had you on just for a short period, and you kind of called us because you got some exciting stuff going on. We do. So very exciting in that Stretch Zone's been around the longest, but we now have some data and research study that backs our proprietary system. I think what's exciting about that is you can go ask any of our staff through the years what has helped people, and they'll say, you know, the consistency has helped people. But now we can tell you that coming in two to three times a week over our 30-day study has proven very well that it changes the game for people, whether that game is pickleball or trying to be a grandpa that can keep up with grandkids. Well, that's what's crazy about it. I was amazed. I mean, we've all been anybody that's been in sports. We've all been in sports, you know. But I didn't realize that, you know, how much stretching, you know, we always thought, well, stretch before, stretch after. Some don't stretch before on some stuff, right? Standard pickleball. Yeah, that's usually just hitting a ball. But stretching is, but where you did the study, when I watched this, you sent us the study, the video, it was amazing. I could not believe what it does, not just for the mind, for everything. Yeah. So soft tissue connection is really about movement. That's how all of us, you know, if you don't use it, you lose it type theory. I think one of my favorite parts of we have these four buckets you can see up here, move better, reducing discomfort, improving sleep, and increasing energy. My favorite one is the improving sleep because that guy improves the rest of them. A lot of people come in for their free consultation at our studio, and we get a lot of, I wish I could sleep better so I could wake up feeling better. And sometimes that's a matter of having your posture reset and coming in for a stretch. We're all nationally board certified practitioners. We recertify every year. We like to say you have to have some skin in the game in our studios, so you have to pass your test. We can't hire you, right? So, yeah, it is a really good thing. I think across the board, as you look at our study and you look at some of the details on it, the percentage of improvement across the board was an 81% improvement in everybody's life that was tested. That's crazy. Some of those people were one time a week. Some were two times. Some were three, and some were four. Our average member in these three studios is coming in 60 minutes in some variation through the week. That could be all at once, or it could be a couple 30-minute sessions. It depends on their schedule. I think what's great is that they're able to book it the way they need it that week. Well, the study said if you come 60 twice a week, it was incredible, like 90%. Yep. Like it took the stats way up there. It really drove them up there. It did. I think that's a unique time and space for people. Our membership is a month-to-month situation in each of the studios, so sometimes we'll have people that will come in long and strong for four or five months, and they'll stay really high. And now they've got a new gained range of motion, which gets retested through the program, and they can back off if they need to. Maintain it. Some people and most people don't, but there is a maintenance process, right? How responsive is the person? What history did they come in with, and how are we going to affect the future, right? If you're an ex-college athlete, you probably got a few more bruises than the average lady that didn't play sports. I would be a four-time-a-weeker if I was a consumer. I currently only get stretched once a week, but we, through this study, as a staff, decided that we get asked, and a lot of times it's our work, so we want to go home. Or a lot of times it's hard to book a schedule back and forth with your counterpart, so we're encouraging our staff, like, you need to be able to be in there once a week because if the proof was once or more, you're going to improve your life. So we let them stretch each other, and hopefully they enjoy that process, and it's good for camaraderie, too. Yeah. Well, think about this, too. When you're trying to stretch somebody, you're using muscles and things that you're going to have to loosen them back up because the muscle's tight. Like, you got a big old leg on you. I'm a 250-pound man. My leg's not going to just stretch real easy, right? Wow, 250? 250. I got a little – I had a little – some extra pizza. Some extra pizza. I think, as I look – so I've been with the company for six years, and as I look at something that I just so value about Stretch Zone now as a regional director is this product and this company, we don't have a ton of turnover with our staff because of the strapping system that is ours. So it speaks to when you get six guys on a table that are all over six foot and they're larger than you, all of the ladies that are my size or even some of our guys that have come through and worked for us can handle a day of work because the straps help us as much as they isolate the stretch for you guys. I like it. And when you get familiar faces, you kind of build a, hey, I have my home studio. I have my folks that I love. So we get to keep staff around a little bit even based upon this study. That's not necessarily in the study, but it is – the truth is we're able to keep a really solid team of people around because the tables make it easier on us to service a great stretch. Likewise, we get on the table and we're like, it really is awesome, and we knew what happened. Right. You know? Yeah. Well, it's just part of the body, and I mean I feel guilty. Like I need this more than ever. I think everybody really does need this, right? We really do. I mean we just kind of just – it'll be okay tomorrow, right? Right. I just touch my toes a couple times and I throw my arm up. Or you put your arm up. Oh, I'm good. I'm good. It takes a lot more than that. We have a full body protocol. So there's 60 minutes where we run through head to toe and kind of jaw to fingertip, if you will. And then we do 30 minutes of a protocol that would get just about everything. I think when you do your consultation with us, we have you set a goal. We go through a lot of health history. Do you have foreign parts? What got replaced in surgery? Do you ride your bike a million miles a week? What person are we working with? And it's an intentional intake form so that we can help say, hey, touching your toes is a reasonable goal. But what would it make better in your life? And so when the members are trying to set that goal, we then have the notes in the system to come back a month later, 60 days later, remeasure and say, hey, are you able to get your socks on after pickleball now? Or how is it with the grandkids? Are you able to go up and down on the floor? And we always get, if they were consistent, that's the trick. Yeah, my life is better. Yeah. And this is not even for just people with sports. I mean, how about the poor person that's at a desk for eight to ten hours a day? That's probably more important for people that are sedentary. It's huge. Yeah, the sedentary, the desk sitters that come in, I think I have a heart for them in a different space because everybody's got to make a living. And they need a little bit of care to even feel rejuvenated enough to go do their hobby, whether it be pickleball or racquetball or whatever they got going on. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I want to go back a little bit farther. What was really neat was watching how the founder came up with this. Yeah. I thought that was very interesting. Can you kind of tell us about that? A little bit. I mean, you know more about it. But, I mean, his own father, basically. Yeah, his grandfather. His grandfather, I meant, was not moving. He was, what, 80? I don't get the – I didn't retain everything. That's okay. You retained the significance of him helping a family member and turning it over to this now 400 stores later. Exactly. He had them walking because he couldn't walk. Not walking. Dancing. Yeah, dancing. Dancing at his cousin's wedding. Yeah, awesome. Dancing at his cousin's wedding. So his name is Jordan Gold. And, yeah, he just kind of had an idea to help his grandpa, an educated idea at that, and here we all are. And I've been a strength and conditioning coach for 22 years, CSCS, so movement and staying strong and being able to apply for your sport or just helping people through the years in family with therapy. The value of stretching he proved time and time again. And then we grew, and they said, we better get a study out to show why we're better, you know, and why our value is better. And so the study started with, I think, like 39, 40 people, correct? Yep. And then, from what I understand, these people were not stretch zone members. They were – they had not stretched. Right. Probably within a certain amount of time. Right. And so everybody had to kind of start at the same level, correct? Everybody started at the same level, and then protocols were picked for each group. They were the same, but they were picked out for each group for each timing, and it was documented with one practitioner. So they didn't have, you know, Joe accidentally applied hamstring at the wrong time. I mean it was a meticulous process of our own protocols through the movement system, through the kinetic chain, to get where we are, where we can say you will sleep better, you will move better, you will have less pain or, you know, reduced discomfort. I like the increased energy one. It's pretty invigorating getting off a table. Like I said, I get stretched once a week. I get off every week, and I'm like, yep, it's just awesome. I just feel better. I have better energy. Sometimes I'll do an hour. Those ones make me want to go home and take a nap, but that's probably because I'm so busy elsewhere in my life. Right? Yeah, it was like, felt good. I'm like, I feel so good I should probably go to bed. Right? But it also gets the blood moving. It gets things flowing. Very much. I mean that's the big part about this. I mean I have a wife that has a blood clot situation. Yeah. If we're on a plane, we got to make sure she moves or she starts getting blood clots. Yeah. So I mean this is another good thing for all that too. You're getting things that you don't move all the time. Yep. So some of the common things that come through the door, we have a lot of people with like MS, cerebral palsy, things of that nature, where just, for lack of a better way to put it, getting unlocked helps them a great deal because of the blood flow. There's nothing your body loves more than oxygenated, happy, rich blood flowing. You know, my favorite stories through the years in our studios are all the ones that get someone smiling again about something they thought they would never do or have back. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. My mom had a locked shoulder. Oh yeah. Like frozen shoulder. Is that something that, yeah. Yep. Could you fix that? Yeah. So we have, we work with the frozen shoulder, the plantar fasciitis, the MS. We have all these people that walk through our doors and depending on their life story and that intake and that goal, they make their program based with some education from one of us consultants and that's how they roll. They find a spot in the system that works for them. Frozen shoulder, you know, those people that are always playing sports later in life like softball and they're like, I poke my hamstring running to third really hard and I'm 55, you know. So it's fun how much I think when I met you guys and we were at Pickleball out there at Clement Park and when I thought about us now and our effect to it is that Pickleball is a huge community of people that want to have fun and stay energetic and Stretch Zone offers that same space of a community to feel better and get energetic. And Pickleball needs it. I'm going to tell you this with Pickleball. It's just what we want to do. It's so exciting and so fun and what a great community. We run on those courts. That's what we do. We just start smacking a ball and making our muscles engage without warming them up, without stretching them. Yes. And then we go home going, what happened? Well, I'll be better tomorrow, right? Yeah. Then we don't stretch. Come here. This is where you're going to get this fixed. Yeah. That's a question. Do people still stretch before they play or do they come in here and they've done all their stretching and they don't need to stretch before their play? What do you suggest? The coach in me says you should definitely use Stretch Zone because what happens when you're on the table, I'm going to get to the full answer here, but what happens when you're on a table in Stretch Zone with our staff is you get to be in control of the intensity that's happening. So we use a 3-5-7 scale. Basically, that's you telling me light, medium, deep. And we want to hit each of those, and the kinetic chain is going to be worked through. So it's going to be recruited properly, and you get to breathe and relax and find each of those spots in each of the muscle groups. So the value of someone else doing it to you at a Stretch Zone is unmatched. Should you still stretch on your own? Uh-huh. You should. Absolutely. And you should bounce around a little and get sweaty and then stretch a little more and then go play your game. Sometimes some of the people that come into our studios are the ones that are like, Well, I tore my ACL because I never warmed up playing pickleball and I'm in my 50s or 60s. And then you go into these clubs, too, and you see all these young guys that are 20 and they're just cruising around that court. And we need it, too, because we don't want to have to see them later on with all those problems. Yeah. It's as much preventative as it is current care for people. Well, I think the thing of it is, too, and you'll know this better than I do, but is when you're playing pickleball or any sport, you're using so many different muscles that you don't think you're using. Right. And that's why people, when they ever go play pickleball at first, they're like, Oh, my gosh, why is my neck sore? Why is my back? And, you know, you use a lot of muscles when you're twisting and running and stopping. Well, pickleball specifically is so force application. It's got so much acceleration and so much deceleration. That kind of loads the system up a little bit different. I think as you look at movement, the way stretch zone kind of breaks down, how your right shoulder works with your left toe, and that's exactly how a baby moves when they start to roll and crawl and become a walker. We're going to break that down. We're going to add it back into your program so that you don't feel like the start stop is so painful the next day. Right. We're going to get you some blood flow, but we're also going to rebalance some of the old issues that people, everybody has a history that they bring to the pickleball court or tennis or golf. And, you know, we get a lot of golfers that are like, you know what, I feel great after nine holes. But when I do 18 or I do a whole tournament all weekend, they come in and they're just like, please help. Well, you should come into the middle, but you had to hit some more balls, I know. Especially with the stuff that's outside. Weather permitting, 100 degrees or 30 degrees makes a big difference on the muscles. Oh, 100 percent. And if you warm up and what your consistency looks like with a practitioner. I wish I had time to get stretch more. You'd think that I'm in a studio constantly. But that's how it always is. That's how it is. I told you that's how it always is. And we haven't been playing pickleball much either. We always go to these pickleball facilities. We just got done with a 600 person tournament. And we just have fun watching them. And we're like, when do we ever get to go out there? You know, so, yeah, it's tough. But that's why we're doing this, too, is we want to bring people like yourself and let people know that this is available. And you need to do it. It is. It's super available. There's, like I said earlier, there's 400 locations. So you should probably be able to find one near you. If not, we'll take you at Littleton, South Clinton Parker any day of the week and get you set up. I love now to, like I said this last year, Stretch Zone's really thrown a lot at the facilities and the staffing out here in the states. And it's all been generally very good. And teams just kind of, like, catching it and doing what they can with it in terms of, you know, QR codes in terms of this is the new sales. This is how we want to use the product. And it led all up to this launch in February. And then corporate really did a solid for us and hosted a road show to all the studios. So we spent a day up in Broomfield with all of the Colorado studios and staff reengaging like this. And how long have you been with Stretch Zone? And what's your role at your location? And when did you test? And wow this study. I think my staff walked away. And I have a bunch of ex-college athletes or a couple EMTs on our staff, so very knowledgeable about the value of stretching and the effect of a good stretch. And they were just like, this is cool. This is going to help us help more people. Well, this is for our listeners. Give them a walkthrough. Because you know it's hard what we found when we have great people on our podcast, doctors, chiropractors, yourself. And the hard part for them is it's scary, right? If I walked in here today, I would be scared, right? I'm just scared. I don't know what's that mean. You're going to put my head, my toe over my head. Right. I mean. That would be a sight. That would be a sight. We can try later. But walk the people through like how you have built a process and system for this. So it's as simple as calling you, right? It is. It is as simple as calling any of our studios, finding us on Google. And you have an introductory offer? Yes, we do. So the first one's free for everybody. Literally free. So why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you come try it? Yeah. That too sets us apart in the world of stretching in that we know the value of our product so well that we will give you a free one. We hope you want to be a member. That's our job is to turn you into a member. But the product ends up speaking for itself, Mike. And the reason is because, you know, our tables, you can't quite see them. But our tables do have the strapping system on them. And that can be very intimidating and awkward. But we explain that system, right? So you sit down with our consultant. You fill out the intake form. Anything from, like I said earlier, the surgeries you've had to the goal that's going on, what medications you may be on, so that we are in a very professional setting to take it to the next level during the stretch. And then we talk to you about us, right? So that you're sitting there. And if I have to listen to your health intake, you, in theory, should want, as a consumer of something, to hear what I'm about to do to you, right? Yeah. Because that takes some of the fear away. It does. And so all of our staff, yeah, some of that's scripted. But I like it that my staff finds their own character in the bold points of how great our product is. So we speak a lot in that moment to that 3-5-7 scale. We speak a lot to the instant feeling you're going to have when you get off the table. And that is what is going to be growing through a program. Because every time you get off the table, we've just changed your range of motion again to a new direction, to a better direction. And then you get on the table where the magic begins, I guess you could say. And we're right here in the middle of it. We're in your studio right now. Right now you have like three or four people being strapped. Yeah. While we're having a podcast. Yeah. But the neat thing is I like that too. It's kind of open. Kind of makes you not so feel like you're in some closed room. Right. And you're going to start seeing ropes come down. And then you got these straps. You're like, what could possibly happen here? Only good things happen here. Yeah. I think as you get in, you know, we work with the hip replacements, the knee replacements, obviously professional athletes. Drew Brees loves us and is one of us. What I like about it is that anybody comes in with a problem, so to speak, or a discomfort or you're my last chance and my buddy next door said he loves you. So here I am. We get that a lot too. Because PT hasn't helped. Or maybe, you know, you look at the older community. They're on a budget. And so we want to meet them, you know, with a discount if we can or work with them. Across the table, you get on and it's an all supine. So you're on your back. There are some sideline positions that we use just because of how the dynamic of what you're stretching needs to be played out. But you're always strapped in with what we call our championship belt. It's really our second set of hands. And we're required to say that to you because we don't want to drop you. Yeah. We never have dropped anybody, right? You know where people only drop the table. But it also isolates the process and it keeps there from being compensation. So those three things together allow us to use the other straps to isolate an opposite leg maybe while we're working with the other side. So when you look at the theory of the stretch zone effect, it is isolating our walking pattern. And so if we can isolate that with you laying down with no gravity, so to speak, in the situation and you get to control it on an intensity scale of, hey, that's a light stretch for me. That's a three. That's a medium stretch for me. That's a five. And, hey, that's solid, good, deep stretch at a seven. It means you're the boss of your stretch even though I'm applying it. And so I think sometimes we can joke a little bit as a staff as people don't really know their bodies because they're like, whoa, that's a seven. You're like, what happened to three? I was hardly moving. So we get to teach people a little bit about a process where we get to lengthen and kind of strengthen a muscle and it gets way less scary. I think we've always had those people that are like, okay, I'm here because it's free and I'm in great need of this and I see the value. What are they going to do to me? And we pride ourselves on hiring the staff that we have in our studios are really phenomenal young people. At that Broomfield event, I sat back. I said almost nothing in that meeting and my staff was just like on fire, ready to go, communicative, bright smiled, wanting to learn as much as they could because they all enjoy their job. Yeah. Well, you're helping somebody. It's like pickleball, right? When we get on the court and I'm a coach, I get to teach somebody pickleball or help them do something better. When they get up off the table and you can see them walk better or feel better, they smile, that's worth a million dollars. I don't care. It is so, it's priceless to affect people's lives. I mean, I wish we had time to like pull over and have a storyline. You know, years ago when we just had South Glen and I was a general manage there, we had a gentleman that had a pretty severe stroke and he had come in. This was back when our program wasn't even month to month and we were doing 12 weeks. We were pushing and selling 12 weeks of this type of therapy because we knew that two or three times a week over 12 weeks is going to change. And we, me and Jordan and that process back then, we've switched some of that up now. But this gentleman came in on a walker. He did his first 12 weeks with us. I sold him. I stretched him. He floated between me and a couple of stretchers because that's the best practice, right? So you can stay on course with your schedule and things. His name was Scott. And about eight weeks later, he came in with a cane. And at the end of his second, uh, at the end of his second chunk, right? His second 12 week program. So now we're about 14 to 15 weeks in. He came in with nothing. Oh my God. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah. Now that's not anywhere on YouTube. I don't have a study show. It's just my word against, you know, whoever's, but those are the, we have tons of those stories in our studio. And that's where you're like, thanks for doing this study corporate because I already knew it. I already knew it. Well, what happens is, is what do we do when something hurts? We do less, right? Right. The funny part, I just knew somebody and you'll know about this. You know, somebody just got a hip replacement when you're done with getting off of surgery. That's what they do to you. You're walking, you're moving, you're moving. Yeah. But what do we do? And what's our normal instinct to do something when something hurts? It'll go away. It'll go away. You know, we're scared. So this is the stuff that prevents it helps you from getting movement heels. It just has to be the right one. Yes. Or the correct number of intensity using for yourself. Yeah. Well, and there's so many ligaments and muscles and things that you don't know what is really hurt. Something, something's hurting sometimes because something else is pulling it. Like a lot from your feet a lot of times, right? Yes. So feet can just take a toll and that's usually your legs. Sometimes it's the mobility of your feet. Um, we, we definitely see a lot of people say, you know, my low back hurts. Um, but what can you do? Because it's kind of my neck. And then you find out the more we applied stretching to their neck and their chest, their low back pain went away. Cause it was like, thanks for stopping all the pull or all the tug or all the compensation. Yeah. It looks like we have Russell here with us. Russell. How are you doing Russell? Hi. He's my business development guy and stretcher. Let's see. I think I got to make sure that you. There he is. We didn't have to have you on there yet. I apologize. I was in the middle of a. Yeah. You're stretching. Yeah. Yeah. We were watching you. You did good. This reminds me of when you go to the barbershop and you have, I bet there's some good stories from this too. You got, you know, you get, they get, you get a personal, you get to get all their information from them. All this story. I get a good group of people come through. I'm definitely in my Littleton location. They're a bit of a younger crowd and we talk about first time parents come through and stuff like that. Parker's getting more towards the retired age and people are coming in a lot of pickleball crowds in all three of the students. Oh yeah. Everybody's been crazy about pickleball lately. We do. That's what we do. And we were just talking about it. We don't stretch and we just get out there and start smacking a ball and run like we're like we're 10 again. And that's why you probably have a knee problem right now. Right. Should we talk about that guy? No, no, no. We have a protocol. Yes. Yes. I'm one of those people. That's why I know how this works. Cause I want to be the first one out there. I want to be on that court and I want to be out there playing and I don't want to get off that court. Right. I'm not playing, but as soon as my shoes can get on and I got a paddle in my hand, I'm playing pickleball. I think a lot of people are like that. They are. I do too. And it's not good. But if I was doing the preventative care, what you guys do, it would help because even if I get crazy, I got the crazy pickleball guy on, he's coming in. At least I had some preventative care going during the week that I at least got stretched a little bit and I'm going to probably play better because my mobility is going to be better. Right. I'm going to be getting those backhands better. I'm going to twist. I'm going to get those backhand shots better. You know? Well, we kind of suggested earlier the acceleration and deceleration of this sport is like there's no in between. It's just a stop start and a stop sort. Basketball is really very similar. Lacrosse is super similar, but they have longer sprints. So the danger of this sport is what everybody already knows and what I described with some maybe big words. But the reality is it's stop, go, stop, go, stop, go, stop, go. And then there's all these really janky positions for these long got to get to it, jumping, hopping, you know, one foot stuff. I think, you know, Russell and I've played together. We went out and used the Littleton Pickler for a team building day, gosh, five months ago, I think now. And we had so much fun. Some of our staff had never played and all of us were like, we should, we should have stretched. You did exactly because you got the urge and once you're out there, you don't think about stretching. You kind of forget about it. Because you just want to play. Right? Well, old and Steven's worse because I don't care, but I'm fine. I'm fine. I know. Don't go. Call me old. What I've noticed on Monday nights, I go to Pickler and I'm their, I'm their stretcher there. At Littleton? At Littleton. Yeah. Sit up in the back there and I give out free stretches, a little 10 minute stretch. Especially before that, their five o'clock league time, I've noticed a lot of tight groins, tight calves and some quads out there. That's mostly what people are worried about. It's a very lateral sport. Definitely everyone wants their low back feeling great. Yeah. They're realizing that their low back is from their inline, mid-step is not feeling good or other things in their lower half isn't feeling good. They realize, oh, this part of my game gets better and I don't try to rely on that low back twist as much. Trying to fix other parts of their game that will help them feel better throughout the week instead of just saying, oh yeah, my low back hurts. But yes, if I had to say anything for lateral sports, get those groins feeling good because we don't want to tear a groin out there. No. No. Yeah. And like you said, you see how crazy, it's probably hard to get them on the bed because they want to get out on that court. Oh yeah. Exactly. They just don't want to have nothing to do with nothing. They just want to get out. You see them trying to get a podcast. I'll do that later. I'll do it later. Okay. I'll do it later. Yeah. Come on. So. Russell's done a great job of stretching those people out there too. It's been a fun event for us. We've had some good turnover as far as those business parts of those things go. But to this kid's credit, people just love him and so they come back. So he has reattorning Monday night. They're like, you know, he hasn't been there for a couple for other events and we get a phone call from Jen and her crew and they're like, when are you coming back? I know. We have a lot of commitments. We will be back. What a great club, huh? She has such a great club. That's a great setup. And she's such a great person too. Gotta love her. She's awesome. Her whole family. I mean, she's got herself in there too. Oh yeah. He's a cool kid. He's playing soccer and it's cool getting to know him. All those members, there's a really fun stories to talk about them. Varying levels of play and it doesn't matter because they're all ranked the same. So I'm sitting there watching games and I think I'm watching a pro match because they're all ranked the same. It's very competitive no matter what. So it's fun watching and seeing these guys play and trying to convince them to get back to get stretch. And we love it. So when they do. We have 20 clubs for you guys and I just started in Padel. Have you heard about Padel? I'm not. So it's a tennis, pickleball, racquetball. You're pretty much playing in at one with a huge paddle that's short and it's a tennis ball that's been deflated. It's a crazy, crazy sport. I'm in. When are we doing it? Oh, it's so fun. That's the number one international sport. International is larger than pickleball. It's called Padel. So you have to look it up and watch some videos, but have you ever played racquetball? I was a racquetball player. So you got glass to work with now. I get to do some funky shots on you. Not only now, you're going to need to come to Stretch Zone because that circle shot I did on you, your back's twisted. You're done. They call me the hammer too. And the banger. All the things. All bad things. But again, we have 20 clubs and everybody needs this. We just, they need it. And that's why we're, I was really excited when you called us and said, Hey, let's get this going. And now you have this study. Yeah. I love that you guys enjoyed the video so much of the Stretch Zone effect. Yeah. And it explains, you know, the whole reasoning why you're doing this study because you guys really do love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. And it explains, you know, the whole reasoning why you're doing this study because you guys really do need studies behind this. So people will. Well, I think people love studies. Yeah. Like they don't want to read a 46 page textbook on something, but they want to know that somebody's taking the time to prove it. We don't need another AI study, right? No, we need a, we want people, real humans applying a real stretch. And what did that, what did we take away with that? So like I said, I was like, Oh, I'm so I've been around in Stretch Zone for a long time. I'm so glad they did this. Yeah. Well, we're here now. So we, I think the next part of our show needs to get stretched and then give our personal, you know, you know, do horses were, were big. I'm actually injured. So I need it actually. I need it for my feet, your head, your head. Well, I don't know. You always have migraines? Not, not, I mean, some, it goes in phases when I, and so today I did. That's one of the top ones. We can stretch your head. Yeah. Yeah. You can stretch everything right up into your head. I like hurt really bad. Just right here. Just talking. Right. Yeah. I shouldn't. Right. Right. Right. So it's your podcast city. Yeah. I know. It's everything. Computer work, all of the above. So give us the, give us a couple of funny stories for our listeners. Like what's a funny, like what's a, what's a hard part of the body to stretch? Like I was thinking like a little toe, like are you like putting a little rubber band on it or something? And probably when people are stretching, you probably want them to be in comfortable clothing, not skirts. Yeah. No, we're kind of like a, bring your sweatpants. That's the majority of my funny stories. The unfortunate moments where they're like, this is why we have extra shorts. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I'm like, I have my little tennis, right? The little tennis courts have the little shorts. Right. So that's good. But maybe some don't. You probably don't think about it when you're coming to stretch. You don't think about it. True. But it's good to know for people. And then we do have the corporate people that are like, they walk in with their gym bag. They change. Then they come out. Then they walk out looking fine. And then they come back in. And then they're like, Oh, my God. I'm trying to think of the appropriate ones. The funny ones are the ones that you can't be outing people on. Yeah. Nobody's gonna know. We won't say names. We won't say names. I've only had one guy that, I mean, he had ticklish feet. So that was kind of a tough one. If you're hanging on somebody's foot all day, the ticklish feet ones are always funny. Those gotta be funny, though. They gotta make you almost laugh. Well, yeah. I mean, most of our stretching for lower body, we're engaging with the ankle or the foot because of how much soft tissue and muscle goes into those joints. And so, yeah. I mean, feet. You learn a lot about your staff. Like, one of the interview questions is, can you handle working and touching people? And they'll say yes. I've had a couple people through the years where I hired and they get like a weekend and they're like, I'm out. I can't touch people. I just found out. Or I can't touch people's feet. Yeah. Or the feet thing is, yeah. Yeah, the feet thing is there. It's not their fault. I mean, a lot of times it's from not taking care of, you know, their hair, which is good. But how about people with, like, diabetes and stuff like that? Yeah. That's really hard on the feet. It can be super hard. So. As far as funny stories, I mean, we did have a lady. We have this very personal stretch that we were releasing the hip flexors. And long time client, she's a sweetheart of a lady. Her husband's getting, they always come, her husband, wife, always get stretched together. Husband was with my sister and I had her that day. Get her out there. And I've got her foot on my chest. She starts patting around my stomach. And she's like, you got nice abs. So, yeah. So, I was like, come on, don't be doing that. Your husband's right. We can't be having that kind of thing. But no, they're all good people. And as far as funny stories, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's. But no, no, they're all good people. So, it's funny, it's funny. They're all good people. They're all like you're on the table and unfortunately strapped in, so they're really embarrassed, but you're like, it's not the first time it happened. They're not running out the door. They're strapped. They're stuck. They have to finish that 30-minute stretch for their own benefit. Nice. Yeah. That happens often. No, no. But every single one of us on staff has happened to. Sure, sure. We have probably some popping, some bones and stuff that are like, whoa, almost stereo. There can be some adjustments, you know, and in, in terms of what that actually looks like, we're not trained in that, but I think what's really neat about it is that when those subtle little things happen, it's because they're breathing, they're using their intensity scale, the right stretch is being applied, and sometimes that'll absolutely happen. Well, because that muscle has taken, it's taken and moved everything into the wrong position and now you're pulling it back. Yeah. I can only imagine that's what it looks like. You know, that muscle's just like, just saying, hey, I'm here now. Yep. You ain't going nowhere. And you've got to get it out of there. Yep. And then you get that intensity and they, I mean, there's some stretches where, I don't know. Regular. I mean, we call one chiro for a reason. You get, you usually get a good pop out of it. Even though it's not the purpose of the stretch, we are trying to target the muscle, but it's going to release. It's going to release. Yeah. Makes sense. We have, we have a lot of clients that are members that use chiropractic and massage work and they'll often say they come back to us after doing another appointment, like my chiropractor's wondering what the heck am I doing? Yeah. They're able to go further and get better results in their other work that they do because they're starting to get limber and be able to move. Yeah. They can get their releases way better because they're able to get in these positions that they weren't able to get to before. We make chiropractors jobs easier for sure. I was going to say that would be, I was in my head, that's like common sense because that muscle is just wrapping itself and tightening it up. Yeah. Because it's hard when you're like, I'm really tight. I'm sorry, guys. I am. Yeah. When I did, when a chiropractor, I mean, it's literally like, it hurts to just- A lot of people will sandwich it together too. If they have their schedule like semi under control in the world, they'll plan, oh, I go to stretch on Monday and I get an adjustment on Tuesday and I do that. I add the chiropractor in biweekly or whatever their chiropractor and them decide. But a lot of people put these two things together. I would make sense because when you go to a chiropractor and you're not doing this, the reason you have to come back so often is because that muscle is pulling them right back to where it was. Muscle memory. That can be a lot of it. It's pulling a lot of it in. I mean, I'm not an expert at it, but I think if you did this and you did both, it would be like that. Yeah. That's a fair, accurate statement. Yeah. It's fun to hear people say, my chiropractor said that I'm moving better and we're like, yeah, you are. And that's because of you guys. Yeah. All right. Now we have to ask the question, have you two played pickleball against each other? Against each other? Or together? We did one game, but we weren't. We did one game. And what level are you both? I haven't got mine. What would you say? Pretty low. I went, funny story, I went and played with Jen's son, Alex, one day, because they need a third and they need a fourth. And nobody was at my table. So I was like, okay, I'll fill in. And I think they were low fours or high fives. He says these guys were pretty good and they were, they made me look ridiculous. Did they body bag you or anything? No, they didn't. They're nice. They're not like you. I just didn't have the touch to put it in. I'd hit it and I'd be, I had zero touch to go in it. So it may take a few games, but it's definitely not. I mean. Russell and I are a pretty solid team together. Together. Together. I like, I could see that. You too. Especially you. I can't even imagine you get a pickleball paddle in your hand. I should play more and I would probably be better. I mean, my level, I would guess I'm around a three somewhere probably. If I played more, I would probably be up. I don't know. I'm really good at like four things. Sports is one of them. Yeah. To be honest. Well, let's do this. Let's get together in the four of us. Go play. Yeah. And they're coming. They're coming on Thursday. Oh, we'll see you Thursday. Thursday morning. Thursday morning for our networking where we get to play. You get to play and then you get to be like, I'm Mike. I do flooring or podcasting, networking. That's my networking boringness. What are you going to say on Thursday? Yeah. Hi. My name is Russell. I have great abs. I'm so strong. And if you would like to touch them, I will stretch you. We're on winter weight right now. We can't put all that one out there. You're bulking right now. I'm bulking too. Yes. It's been a few year long bulk right now. It's kind of been tough. You are turning red a little. You're making me laugh. She's remembering a lot of the stories that I'm not allowed to tell you. You know there's a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. You know there's a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. There is a lot more. The general public always needs a good push in a positive direction. Yes. I do. I do. And redirected sometimes. It happens. But even with all of those stories, it's because they're good people and we have a good laugh about at the end, it'll all. It'll all. Well, and everybody smiles. And it's a good thing. We haven't lost anybody over those moments. That's good. Yeah. You know you're going to handle them delicately and treat them with respect because half the time they don't even know. Yeah. You know. Things happen. But you're doing something great. Yeah. That's what I love. You guys are doing something really, really great. Just who. You know, I've been in sports a long time and just you've heard stretching and we've all been doing it. But now that we know that it's where there's a science behind it, you know what I mean? And how much that we need, what it will do for your game, your life, your normal, just go to work, your sleep. I mean, you guys got to get on and watch this video. Yeah. Please find it. It's on our website. OK. Yeah. So tell us how we find you guys. Go ahead. We do have a website. Usually with our studios, we do like to promote the QR code mostly through our social media. Easy way to access that to get us to the site. But stretchzone.com. Correct? Yep. Stretchzone.com. They've got all their study findings on there. And that's. Stretch zone effect. Yeah. Yeah. The stretch zone effect. The documentary is on there. Yeah. Yep. They finally put it up there. They did. It's on there. These guys got some popcorn. Yeah. Hey. All right. I should be doing that. They get you all amped up for. They do actually. Yeah. Was it Jordan? Jordan gets real intense. Yeah. He gets you all amped up. Yep. He's the boss. Yeah. There's two Jordans. OK. Yeah. They're both passionate in two different ways. Yeah. One's business. Yeah. And they match each other really well. And the people on the video, they took great care of the study and they found the right avenues to apply different body types and always just the same stretch zone effect. Does that mean everybody's getting the same stretch? No. That's not what's happening. Because we can tailor it to your knee or your neck, right? We are going to see some things regularly that she may not see till her third stretch in because her main complaint is going to be her shoulders and neck. So we're going to focus and hover in on upper body and the protocols that we use there. And that we have to train on to get certified in, right? So when I say certain things to them and I'm talking all these, we use color codes to communicate and I can just say a color to him when you walk in, he's going to know exactly how to help you that day. And so would anybody else. Yeah. Red. Red. Red. Code red. Code red. Yeah. Code blue. Right. Oh, that one's gone. For you, it would be yellow, orange, and green. I thought it was going to be pink. No. No. Not pink. Pink would be a good one. Red. Red. You got me red there. Yeah. Red is a staple. Red will be a lot for almost everybody and everybody's going to get the biggest push out of red and that's your glute complex stretches that we're talking about. Again, the IT band, the TFL, everything that surrounds that sac nerve to make sure that nerve is pumping your blood and you have good circulation to go through all the way up your back. So most, almost everybody, no matter what your column is, everybody always says you need red. Yeah. Knee problems, you're looking at your adductors. You're looking at your adductors and your quads and mostly trying to get that to stabilize good. Hamstrings is for the sake of being able to stretch and not over-hyperextend it. Yeah. You know, one of the, back to the funny story thing is you just said hamstrings and I'm running through these stories in my head. It's fun to teach people. This isn't necessarily funny in a ha-ha way. It's more the fun of educating people when you're working with them. But I would ask both of you, how many hamstrings do you have? You should know this one, Mike. I don't know this. I've been in the bodybuilding world. Four. I was going to say six. Correct. A lot of people don't know. They're just like, I have two legs, so I have two hamstrings. Right? Yeah. That makes sense. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, two sounded too simple. So I was like, okay, it's got to be. You're on to something. Okay. We all have six hamstrings and any proper stretch for someone with, let's say who comes in with a hamstring issue or a knee issue, we're going to isolate all six of those in a stretch. One by one, they're going to get taken care of. And that's care from your hip to your knee specifically. But that is a major player in the posterior chain for all the other things that are going to come up and cause a problem for somebody. Yeah. The reason I know a little bit is that when you teach bodybuilding or somebody wants to get into bodybuilding, they don't realize how many heads are on the bicep, how many heads are on the tricep, how many shoulders. Yeah. Why you got to do this? Because the points matter. Exactly. So there's different muscles. They just got one muscle like fires that does everything. You don't want one big old muscle. I don't hang that. Well you guys were a lot of fun. Yeah. We're definitely going to come in and do a session. Absolutely. And that way we'll put us on there. And we want to go play some pickleball with you guys. Yeah. That's it. Definitely. Thursday's going to be fun. Thursday. We're going to see you Thursday. It's okay. I need to maybe stretch my brain. Yeah. Actually, do they have a brain stretch? I can't say that it's a brain stretch. I wouldn't say it's brain, but- It's more blood, Mike. It's a blood flow. Are you telling me it's hopeless with Mike is what we're saying? I mean, those are your words. That's okay. That's okay. I have one more quick question for you guys. Yeah. So do you guys have like Instagram, TikTok? Do you guys all have it? Is it for the whole Stretch Zone franchise? Or do you have like Colorado? Do you have different territories? So we have our Littleton, Southland, and Parker Studios all have their own Instagram. We have a Facebook group that you can join, ask to join. That is a place where we love our members to scan in. We're talking QR codes all day long now. They're just so beneficial. So we have a Littleton, Parker, Southland group. Sorry. I'm trying to get all the right words for the right meta set up where you can go in and read what our members are experiencing in our studios. We built that out last year so that we could kind of have more of the testimony of what we knew was going on. And then, you know, here comes February with this great stuff. Hop on Facebook and look us up so you can read more of actual people and what they've done in our studios. Guys, just call a Stretch Zone. It's free. The first one is free. I mean, we can't give you any cheaper than that. Your first one's free. They want you to come in, experience it. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. I mean, we would hear there's people and people around the podcast studio stretching. You're getting up. They're happy. They're smiling. I don't see anybody crying. I didn't hear any screams. You would have heard them on the mic. Nobody out the back door crying. No, nobody crying. So come in here. It's free, guys. Right. And their first one's free. Even just being able to come. If they mention Pickleballer is next door and they say they hear of us through this, we would be happy to give them 10% off. So anybody that wants to do that, come in. We'll make sure we run you a good deal, too. Yeah. Well, you guys are great. And we just love you because we had to talk to you last time. You guys have been so fun and so good to us. I was thinking, you know, they just might want to talk to us because this is cool stuff. Yeah, that's great. More than anything, thank you for being so proactive. You see, we pop up. Boom. Yeah, you did. We're taking over. Watch out. Today? We have a studio here. All right, let's do it. Right now. Well, that's what made us Pickleballer is Next Door different. That we wanted to be different than other podcasts. Most podcasts are done in an office, a basement, an office somewhere. And we do them at functions, live, out here in the person's workspace. It's so genuine. It's right here. We're in your workspace. Yeah. We're watching you. Yeah. You know, so and we do that at Pickleball events, too. We're right out there with the people having fun. We get a live situations instead of, you know, somewhere we're taking, calling you off a phone somewhere saying, hey, let's just tell us some stories. We're here. Yeah. So, I think our listeners get a lot more out of it than just a podcast out of a basement or something. So. Right. Anyway, that's why shout out to me. Thank you. Great day, you guys. Thank you. You guys have a great day. Have a great day. Thank you. Take care. Thanks. Bye. Every professional athlete, from football to tennis, relies on electrolytes to stay strong and recover fast. Why? Because sweat takes away more than water. It drains essential minerals like sodium and potassium. Without them, your body slows down and your game slips. 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