Who is Paul Zaichik?
Paul Zaichik is an Exercise Science Expert, Author of multitude of books, and the creator of Zaichik Stretching Techniques (formerly known as Kinesiological Stretching Technique). His specialty is flexibility training as well as body weight conditioning. His innovative method is designed to have a maximum carry over into specific athletic techniques. A large part of his talent is to assess an athlete and quickly understand what kind of training is needed for optimal techniques. Paul is the author of Books and DVD’s on the topic of flexibility, martial arts and bodyweight training.
Over the years, Paul Zaichik has worked with a variety of individuals including athletes, entertainers, and military personnel. His ElasticSteel Method of Athletic Conditioning programs are used world wide by both professional and amateurs with great success.
Zaichik Stretching Techniques (formerly known as Kinesiological Stretching Technique) is a Trademarked and Copywrited concept, developed through ElasticSteel research by Paul Zaichik. The techniques used are almost impossible to describe without showing, simply because there is nothing to compare them to. Nothing like this has ever existed before. The purpose of Zaichik Streching Techniques (ZST) is to avoid the stretch reflex, while increasing the range of motion of a specific muscle. This is strikingly different from previously known stretching techniques, which look to increase the ROM in a specific degree of freedom of a joint or group of joints. (Hip Flexion, shoulder rotation, neck extension, etc.) Zaichik stretching simultaneously increases the flexibility of a muscle in all its actions, using the reversible system of targets and leverages. This allows the stretch reflex to be avoided.
Each muscle has a specific line of pull. Traditional stretching such as yoga or sport stretches, only partially go with the natural line of pull. The reason for this, is because they try to expand a specific movement or a posture. To achieve those, multiple muscles need to stretch. No two muscles do exactly the same thing, thus you stretch each one only partially.
Zaichik Stretching focuses on muscles. Each specific muscle does something unique. Isolating the muscle not only allows to focus on it, but also to use it's various actions to create space for each other, hastening the stretching and elongation process. On top of that, Zaichik stretching allow application of other modalities, making them much more effective. (Isometric Stretching, PNF, Reciprocal Inhibition, Extended Length Conditioning). To polish it off, it allows for various modalities to be applied at the same time, so that flexibility gained from one, transfers right into another.