Sherry Hopkins Unveils the Power of Assisted Stretching
Jan 12, 2024
Brian Granader
Embark on a transformative adventure with Brian Granader as I sit down with the remarkable Sherry Hopkins to unearth the secrets of assisted stretching that's taking Red Lotus Yoga by storm. As an athlete-turned-coach, Sherry's exceptional journey into becoming a healer through movement and touch is nothing short of inspiring. Our chat uncovers the essence of Red Lotus Stretch, our groundbreaking program designed to not only advance your range of motion but also to tackle those stubborn physical barriers. Sherry's profound insights will guide you through the intricacies of an assisted stretch session, where active movement and mindful breathing converge to foster relaxation and recovery.
As we venture further, we're thrilled to offer you a front-row seat to the Red Lotus Stretch revolution—with a direct line to us, your hosts, and the flexibility of scheduling personalized appointments. Excited to expand your wellness repertoire? Our weekend group stretching classes await, no partner necessary. With the community spirit at the heart of our philosophy, there's a palpable buzz as we welcome you to be a part of something special. So, tune in, stretch out, and connect with us; together, let's explore how the Red Lotus Stretch program can be the key to unlocking your body's full potential.
Embark on a transformative adventure with Brian Granader as I sit down with the remarkable Sherry Hopkins to unearth the secrets of assisted stretching that's taking Red Lotus Yoga by storm. As an athlete-turned-coach, Sherry's exceptional journey into becoming a healer through movement and touch is nothing short of inspiring. Our chat uncovers the essence of Red Lotus Stretch, our groundbreaking program designed to not only advance your range of motion but also to tackle those stubborn physical barriers. Sherry's profound insights will guide you through the intricacies of an assisted stretch session, where active movement and mindful breathing converge to foster relaxation and recovery.
As we venture further, we're thrilled to offer you a front-row seat to the Red Lotus Stretch revolution—with a direct line to us, your hosts, and the flexibility of scheduling personalized appointments. Excited to expand your wellness repertoire? Our weekend group stretching classes await, no partner necessary. With the community spirit at the heart of our philosophy, there's a palpable buzz as we welcome you to be a part of something special. So, tune in, stretch out, and connect with us; together, let's explore how the Red Lotus Stretch program can be the key to unlocking your body's full potential.
Speaker 1:
All right. Hey everybody, it's Brian Grenadier on the Origins Podcast, and I am here with Sherry Hopkins, who is a coach. She has a ton of healing experience and she has done so much in the world of helping people get healthy, and she and I are embarking on a project where we are going to create something called Red Lotus Stretch, which is an assisted stretching program at Red Lotus Yoga, and I'm here with Sherry. We're going to talk all about it and give people a sense of what we're doing and our goals, our plans, our dreams and her background and experience. So, sherry, tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get started in healing modalities?
Speaker 2:
I've always been an athlete pretty much my whole life growing up, and when I had my daughter I was about 180 pounds and so I went from being about 100 pounds to 180 pounds. And then, after I found, or had her, I found myself in an unhealthy state and CrossFit had came into my life and I got into it, really started enjoying doing it and one day somebody asked me why I didn't have my own place or why I wasn't coaching more. And that was kind of the first like little light for me of the power of asking for something. Right after I asked that it was kind of tenfold. Immediately I had my own place and from there it's just been literally a part of my heart, part of my passion helping people feel better, move better, get them out of pain, pain that they've been in chronically their whole lives, movement that maybe they thought they could never have again, having it restored, and just really the power of the connection, of being able to connect with people and make them feel better. So that was where I started was in CrossFit, and from there it just moved into foundational functional movement, thai yoga, kettlebell certifications, just any certification I could get about.
Speaker 2:
Body movement really is is what I wanted, specialized in sports and conditioning, worked with hundreds of people. So why I worked with hundreds of people, I was able to, like you, watch all of those people move and try to see the similarities and some of the differences and how I could help them and why I started there. It was about 13 years ago. That's when I, my athletes just kind of let me do hands on and that's just kind of where my hands everyone told me keep my hands behind my back because I just wanted to touch you, I wanted to help you, I wanted to help move you because I could see what was wrong and once I could kind of help manipulate that situation or move or stretch it. I know that I could help you move better and assist in that. So it's really just the power of the heart.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's one of the unique things about, first of all, for all you listening, listening working with Sherry is that she'll look at your body, she'll watch you walk, she'll get her hands on you in a safe, healthy way, by the way, and she will oh, you need to do this and let me maneuver your here and let me massage this, or let me push that, or push it in my hand and try this, and she just kind of has this intuitive knowing and I think that people who have that kind of intuition are really gifted healers. And it's not something you can even teach. It's sort of like you need that much time helping people, number one. But number two you need. It's not something taught, it's just something innate, and Sherry has that for sure.
Speaker 1:
So, assisted stretching I've had it done on me before, sherry's had it done on her before, and this is a clothing on stretch where the body is moved into pretty much standard ranges of motion, unless you're getting a therapeutic stretch, like for a specific injury or a specific healing. And, sherry, can you describe it better than I'm describing it now because I'm not doing a great job? What would happen if somebody comes in? They're on the table, what are you going to do to them?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So just to start off with stretching just a little bit and kind of to talk about how yoga, athletics and assisted stretching and massage kind of all go together and they all facilitate healing of the body. So we have a first type of stretch is what we see in yoga, which is a passive stretch which you're doing it yourself. You're holding poses and getting into that, which is wonderful. We get into some of the longer ones where it takes longer to get deeper into those joints and some of that fashion. All that's amazing.
Speaker 2:
But if you've done any of those classes or you moved on your own as far as athletics, I'm sure you found yourself kind of stuck in some areas or not moving properly or having to manipulate your pose or your position to be able to get into a position better because you have restrictions or old injuries.
Speaker 2:
So assisted stretch helps you where we go through poses, you lay on the table and I'll take you through a series of poses.
Speaker 2:
Really, the first appointment is to kind of take you through a screening of your joints to see what range of motion you have and why we're going through that.
Speaker 2:
We actively move through the stretching, having you breathe with us, so that we can facilitate a little bit more of an end range of motion for you and help the blood flow and breath all combine help with relaxation and the assisted stretch process and to help you just get into better positioning and identifying with the limitations that you have, because a lot of times we know we have a limitation but we don't really know what or where that limitation is coming from.
Speaker 2:
So by moving you through the assisted stretch, that kind of foundation where we're checking out your body and your range of motion, we can help you assist in a better program to be able to further assist yourself at home with a band, be able to do some passive stuff or to be able to continue to come in and have more of a therapeutic assisted stretch type of modality that's performed on you but it's designed to help you just relax while you're laying on a table a little bit more open. It's not quiet like a massage. We want to try to be able to have a little bit more of a higher energy atmosphere while we're stretching you and moving through some of those poses.
Speaker 1:
Cool. I've received massage, I've done assisted stretching, I do yoga very regularly, I work out at the gym regularly, so I'm a very active guy and there's times where I want that deep tissue massage kind of experience where I'm on a table and I'm under a warm blanket and such. And then there's times where I just need to work something out and I don't want that deep tissue massage. I want to have my body stretched by somebody else who can get a sense of what I need. And I find sometimes too that with my clothing on and in sort of a fun, a little more lively environment, I get a really great benefit from the assisted stretching. Plus, I can have a conversation with them and say where am I limited here? What do you see, what do you feel? And no-transcript, I find it's just really, really beneficial. I also find too that through some of our clientele here that there are plenty of people that are not comfortable. Being naked on a table alone in a room with somebody and with your clothing on and in a more open environment for some people is way more comfortable. Also, let's say, you're working with something more therapeutic and you've had an accident or just the weight of life is sort of wearing you out. I know at the age of 59 that when I turn 50, the wheels started falling off the bus. It was a whole lot of injury prevention, more than a lot of other things I used to do. Life happens.
Speaker 1:
As we age we may need assistance to move us through range of motion. Maybe yoga is not for you, but this helps you stretch and feel the way you need to feel. So it's your body moves. What I know about body movement too is that a lot of times the muscles get stuck. They're supposed to move seamlessly together and they sometimes you get these adhesions. Stretching helps remove that a bit and then allows the body to move in its natural way. Then our natural habit patterns of movement that sometimes create binding or pain can be undone so that our body moves the way it's supposed to move. Stretching can do that too. I found that it's really helpful. What do you think about that, sherry?
Speaker 2:
You mentioned a lot of really good points there. Going to the point of somebody maybe not being comfortable with massage. I've done all types of therapy on people, so cupping, manual therapy and all forms of modality really are facilitating blood through our body. That's what I like to think about, excuse me, for our bodies is that we're kind of like a river right, so that blood's just constantly flowing through our bodies and as we age. I hit 50 this year, so I'm excited about my wheels staying on my bus this year.
Speaker 2:
But with that being said, repetition is really the evil of any movement right and, like you were talking about, our muscle fibers will get ahesions or it will pull and manipulate our body in different ways. For whatever we do, whether it be work or hobby or habit of sport, whatever we want to do, repetition is always going to cause a movement pattern that is repetitive in our body, and you'll be able to see that through what I like to call our skin suit. The skin on our body is just like clothes, so if we're tight somewhere, if I'm tight over here, you're going to see my shirt move, and that's exactly what it does to our body is, when our skins and muscles are tight, it's going to manipulate our skeletal structure, because those are the things that can be manipulated. So by being able to have you on a table which is really important because when we stand up, our body is going to be the way we stand and our orientation is always going to be dictated by the gravity that's pulling on our body. So when I get you on a table I can actually see the imbalances perfectly, because now you're laying on your back and gravity isn't pulling your structure down, so we can really get into some of your foundation and your joints a little bit better and unrestricted.
Speaker 2:
So I think it allows the client to relax and I'm 100% a proponent as far as coaching is really education. So that is one thing that I do really like about the assisted stretching as I'm moving through you with the movements and we're feeling what's going on. You can either sit back and relax and close your eyes and breathe through the movements or, if you're interested in it more, during that process I can talk to you or we can follow up with a conversation on what I would suggest you need to move more on. But I just think it's a wonderful atmosphere that we've been able to create and bringing in different modalities here at RedLogus. That all just promotes a really good feel and network of like-minded people to be able to promote healing all around for whatever your needs are.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. Is there anything else you want to add to what this is going to look like and our pricing and how to reach you and the best way to set up appointments and stuff like that?
Speaker 2:
Sure, just going over a couple of the who, what, why, ones and where kind of things, so that we touch basis for all of those. So really, just the who I want to make sure I touch base on that. This is for anybody. This could be for kids all the way to somebody who is restricted by means of not even being able to get out of bed. Any type of assisted stretching at any age really is going to benefit anybody and I've worked with a lot of people in a lot of different modalities and that's really what touches my heart being able to bring health and that just freedom really, because when you're not restricted and you can move a little bit better, you can think a little bit better. So the who is really everybody right. The what is our assisted stretching and that is going to just deliver increased performance, help with depression, overall strength, because you'll be able to get in a better range of motion. So if you are athletic or you're just doing extra stretching at home on your, it's just going to get you to that range of motion just a little bit better with some assistance and education.
Speaker 2:
And the where is here at Red Lotus in Rochester. So it is Red Lotus yoga. And this is our new extension, red Lotus stretch. That's at 1900 South Levernoy, am I correct? Yeah, In.
Speaker 2:
Rochester, so we're excited about that. It's a great way to be able to get ahold of me. Right now we're going to start off my direct line. My number is 586-819-4653. You can call me or text me and get ahold of me there. We also have an email that you can email us if you'd like more information or to contact us there at Red Lotus stretch at Gmail, and we'll be happy to answer any of your questions and get you in the schedule just as soon as possible. We are filling up fast, so we have daytime appointments and evening appointments. We'll also be opening up on the weekend to some group type stretching classes, so you don't necessarily need to come with a partner. There may be somebody here and we can just do some partner assisted stretching on the weekends to be able to bring our community together.
Speaker 1:
That's fantastic. Anyway, Sherry, thank you so so much, Looking forward to this venture together and looking forward to have everybody listening to this, set up an appointment with Sherry and get yourself stretched and notice the difference. So thank you and have a great day.