In this introductory video I breakdown a concept called Irradiation. This is just a fancy way of saying: create internal tension by contracting your muscles.

Sometimes you may hear me call it irradiation, other times you will hear me call it internal tension - it is the same thing.


We utilize internal tension for 3 main reasons:

1. Minimize compensation and isolate the working joint. By stabilizing your body you’re able to train the working joint in greater isolation, which will allow for high quality training on that area. Just remember, you’re likely going to have plenty of compensations in the beginning when you’re taking the classes no matter what, because this type of training is very new and requires a lot of focus and awareness - this is something that develops over time. The more time you spend doing Kinstretch, the better you’ll get at minimizing compensations. Don’t get frustrating with the compensations in the beginning, just be mindful of them and keep doing your best to correct them.

2. Strength adaptations. By creating full body tension we can help direct more neural drive to the working area, which will help deepen the force of contraction and apply stress/force to lines of tissue. In conventional strength training we utilize weights like dumbbells and barbells to apply force on lines of tissue. In Kinstretch we utilize internal tension and isometric force.

3. Body control. When we create internal tension and go into a particular exercise - we’re now teaching our nervous system how to control and produce force throughout our ranges of motion. This is absolutely key for the development of body control and strength. You’ll also develop good body awareness which is a very unique feeling, but that definitely takes time and practice to develop.

When we create full body tension, we’re also tension on the working area. For example, if we’re working the shoulder - we want to create full body tension and tension to the shoulder joint and the musculature of the arm.

In Kinstretch WE control the intensity of each exercise through our internal tension and overall effort - meaning how much force we create into our ranges of motion. Just remember, Kinstretch will highlight areas of weakness and limitation - these are areas where the tissue quality may not be very strong, so these tissues may not be able to absorb high levels of force *yet*. This is especially true in areas of weakness/injury/dysfunction. So make sure to keep your intensity levels low, especially in areas of past limitations, and gradually build up the intensity over time. Just like someone would do if they just started weight training for the first time: they would stick to lighter weights and really focus on their form, and then gradually build up the weights over time as they get stronger. You can absolutely build up to higher levels of tension in Kinstretch (just like weight lifting), but that should be a gradual process.

For some people, depending on their tissue quality in a certain range of motion, they may need to work at much lower intensities at first, even as low as 5-15%, and that’s okay. You don’t have to seek an “intense workout” when you're first starting. Instead, learn about your body and apply an appropriate amount of stimulus to those areas, and then gradually build up that stimulus over time - this is how we progressively overload. It’s always best to start off slow, listen to your body, go at your own pace, and gradually build up over time.

If I cue a certain percentage of irradiation in class (let’s say 30-40%), just know that this is a general range. It doesn’t have to be perfect by any means. And if you’re someone who needs to start off at lower intensities, please work at lower intensities regardless of what is cued in class - those cues are just general recommendations, but every individual and their current capacity may be different.

Additionally, don’t overthink irradiation and try to have it be perfect right away, that’s not going to happen. You’ll have times where you lose tension in certain areas and that’s okay. Just be mindful of it and do your best - it WILL get better over time.

And lastly, don’t forget to breathe! Don’t hold your breath when you’re irradiating. I like to take a nice breath in, create full body tension, and then do more shallow breathing - but just find a breathing rhythm that works for you.

I hope this was informative and helpful! Just FYI - this will all make a little more sense as you go into some of the classes and see how we create tension in certain movements.