The Importance Of Stretching With Dr Leada Malek || WBWL Ep 56

This is all about the science of stretching, how to apply it appropriately, and what stretches are best for you and your goals. We also talk about how stretching is integrate with other forms of exercise modalities and how to integrate it into your daily life. Dr Leada has amassed her social media to over 100K for good reason, and it's because she inspires others to live healthier lives and move more. Her book, "The Science of Stretching", was just released recently and can find it on amazon here: https://amzn.to/3NnQl4J If you're looking for a jam-packed episode on stretching, this takes the cake!

Transcript

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Okay, guys, welcome to the Won Body Won Life Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Jason Won lifestyle physical therapy. We talk everything from health, wellness, strength, mobility, anything in regards to helping you live a more fulfilling, active, pain free life. Just very excited to introduce our guest today. Somebody that's a local Bay Area PT, we have a kinfolk artist that does a quite a bit in common in terms of where we come from, our background, and her name's Dr. Leada Malek, and she's done some amazing things. I've seen her not just grow her social media, but also just be a great influence and inspire a lot of people to live healthier lives. So welcome in Leada. How are you? Hi, good. How are you? Thanks for having me. Awesome. Why don't you just do a brief introduction? So tell us a little about yourself, what your background is, and what's your why are you here? I am a Bay Area born and raised PT. Firstly and foremost, my why revolves around Like many other PTs, movement a fascination with exercise, a love for movement, and and an admiration of exercise as a form of medicine, in a way. I'm a board certified sports clinical specialist. My time is spent primarily in outpatient sports ortho, working with athletes from all ages. I've done the. I've worked with young athletes. I've worked with elite and collegiate and the pro level and everyone in between. Most recently as of the pandemic, I found myself online, not intentionally, but just trying to make use of our, our skills as PT when things felt like you couldn't reach anyone and that just left me here. But yeah, I'm excited to be here. Cool. Yeah I really appreciate that. You're a, you're truly a product of resilience because. I remember I sprung onto the scene back in 2019. I just wanted to do my own thing and spread my own wings and treat the way I wanted to treat and not be like in the hands of a certain strict guidelines. But then you came along and then we were able to connect a bit back in. 2020, 2021. And yeah, obviously just super inspired by the value that you give and how educational. If you guys don't know, it's yes, I think it's Dr. Leada, I'm like that. And yeah, if you watch, if you see a lot of her reels you'll always get something out of it. So let's dive into something that you've been working on like the past few weeks, which is your book, which I believe is called the science of stretch. Yeah. And that's really exciting. So tell us a little bit about the book, what it entails. And who is this for? Thank you. Yeah. The book came out of nowhere, really this opportunity. The publisher found me on Instagram and they were like, Hey, we like how you teach, have you ever thought about writing a book? And I was like, is this a scam? What are you, who are you? And they said, no seriously we're hoping to add another book to our series called the science of, and it's a DK books, Penguin publishing, and they. They have a fantastic series that's just like visually gorgeous. And it's called the science of, and they had already done the science of running, science of Pilates, science of yoga, science of strength training most recently. And I think there was one but I think three of the authors already had been physical therapists. And so they wanted to do another one and their initial ask was stretching. And I was like, are you sure? And they're like, yeah, you're just fascinated. And so you'll probably like, one of the first things everyone sees when they see my page. And then this book is this is so interestingly, they're like, you don't even talk about stretching. Like, why would you write a book? I'm like, glad you asked. Because they already have such a fantastic book on strength training. And so I could see why They wanted to do a focus on just the mobility stuff. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. Cool. Fast forward to writing about it. And I was like, what contents goes in this book? Initially, like my own biases got the best of me. I was like that's going to be boring. What am I going to talk about? And then I realized how many questions we get all the time when it comes to stretching and mobility, we're constantly answering them as VTs. And I was like, you know what? There's enough to talk about in this book. And if there isn't now, there is a resource that I can point people to when I want to talk about what questions they have. So that's what led me here. Absolutely. And I hope to put, I, I read the, a little bit of the chapters and the things that are the compass. There's a lot of value there. Even if it's just you wanting specific stretches for your neck, your legs, sciatica, the nerves, right? So everything's encompass it. I know it's going to help a lot of people. How does stretching come into play with someone's specific health and fitness goals? I know that people obviously can't really just rely truly on just stretching. It has to be an all encompassing thing. But when does, how does stretching come into play specifically with their goals? Yeah, that's a good question. And I feel like when it comes to stretching, you get two camps really. And on in our world and social media, it's either like stretch for everything or don't stretch at all. And the reality is like stuff happens when we put our muscles under this external load. And we have to honor that. Whether or not it's changing something for your goals is a different story, but we can't say that it does nothing because obviously it does something. And part of the reason is We've been taught different things growing up, like stretching because it's this or stretching because it does that, not just stretching because it can maybe do these things and you can use it if you want. So while there's I think there was a paper out there. I, the name is blanking, but it, the title was, can we move from, do we need to stretch? To do we have to stretch or do we have to stretch or do we need to stretch and that while there, there's a level of okay, this can actually help me reach my goals because I don't have the strength to move into certain ranges yet of positions that are relevant to my goals. If I want to do, ballet is a kind of an extreme example, but even if I wanted to play volleyball, for example, which I grew up playing volleyball, if I don't have the rotation. And my spine, I don't have the mobility in my shoulder to get there and hit the ball to a certain extent. Practicing can open that up, but if there's restrictions in the way, why not just go into a basic, simple stretch to get there and get some length and then build through it, build that tolerance through it. Add strength to it. Yeah, absolutely. I truly think that even with stretching and. I know that people delineate between stretching and mobility, being more kind of being strong, more stable within the range of motion versus stretching, maybe just passively stretching tissues. But there are a lot of forms of stretching. There's dynamic, ballistic, they're static. And I think that, yeah, when people have any sort of deficits that you see again, whether it's like somebody's they're throwing a baseball and they lack external rotation. I really think that there is some merit towards at least getting something like a stick, a dowel, somebody. To get them into that position so that they're not hurting their shoulder. So yeah, why don't you, can you tell people a little bit more about some of the differences between certain types of stretches and when would they be indicated? So a static stretch is what we mostly think of when we think of stretching, I think, and I think that's part of the fault is that we just imagine sitting with our legs straightened out and just bending forward into the hamstring stretch like we all did as kids. While that has its place, static stretching can be helpful for certain things and certain goals. Dynamic stretching is probably what we'll see most often in our sports that don't require those bigger ranges of motion. working in and out of a range. Dynamic stretch is just moving through the original stretch. A lot of the stretches in the book can be done, and you'll see this noted, statically or under a dynamic load. So you're moving in and out of it, spend less time in it. They found that static stretching might be better if you're trying to push for long term flexibility gains, if you're trying to really push that range. You want to hang in that stretch a little bit longer. You may have to change the intensity of the stretch as you become more experienced. If I'm if you're dealing with a ballerina and they want to improve some length in their hamstring muscle and they're moving into a static stretch, but they're barely pushing into it. Probably not going to increase that range. So they might need to actually push under that load. Of course, on the separate camp, make sure you're strong in that range. That's a whole different discussion. But static and dynamic, and then we have PNF stretching, which these are the three big ones. Stretching can work like magic. Sometimes it's just super cool. You're utilizing the nervous system to activate the muscle, get it to contract, and then it changes the dynamic and then you end up gaining range. Almost instantly. The only difference is there's a little bit of a learning curve with that. You have to know what you're doing, you have to know what positions to be in, and you might have to know the best position to be in to try to do the PNF stretch. Which is not as intuitive. If I'm just going to go across body stretch, something like, wait, can I do that PNF yeah, but let me walk you through it versus, yeah, just hold that for a second, move in and out of it. It's different. Yeah. I really like PNF and utilizing that for my own health and my own clients. A little bit of background, I guess there's autogenic versus reciprocal inhibition. So essentially if you're contracting the same musculature, then basically you're contracting muscle that potentially is tight, but then it allows it to relax and then go through fuller range of motion. So yeah, I, if obviously you don't know what you're doing, that's where you can definitely ask. Me or later for specific help on that. And yeah, static stretching. I do have some merit. I think like when I'm watching the warriors games, like you might as well knock out something, right? It's might as well not stay on the couch and get my hip flexors all tight. I might as well get some sort of couch stretch. So I will still utilize that because I think majority of my training is like six to seven days of strength training, but nonetheless, I stopped the balance it out with. Static dynamic stretching in order to be a more well rounded athlete. So yeah when I guess for you, I know that you're in outpatient therapy, you're doing things at home, you're filming can you tell me a little bit about what sort of your stretch routine kind of looks or like, when do you incorporate stretch honestly? And this might change as I get older, because I think. Most people will be like, I didn't just roll out of bed and jump onto the court anymore. Like our muscles do get stiffer as we go. And that's natural. It's no big deal. We just have to work around it. So at this point in my life, I mainly utilize stretching as a dynamic part of a dynamic warmup before my workouts. Cause I often go. After I've been at home at the computer for a while and like most people I feel stiff as a board when I get up and leave and I'm at my age now, so I can imagine that's going to get, that's going to feel a little more intense later on. It doesn't concern me. It must be like, Oh my gosh, does that mean I'm, doomed for exit? No, it's fine. Just get up, start moving around. So I use it as a dynamic warmup. Mostly there are some times where I'm like, Ooh, you know what? This does not feel like it's moving that well. I will dabble in some static stretching. For example, recently was dealing with a shoulder thing. Rotator cuff was acting up. I haven't been able to get my arm up and out for maybe three and a half months that well, just because things were achy to get there. I could do it passively. I could do with assistance, but I couldn't actively get there in that process. My whole anterior like shoulder, anterior capsule got tight because I just wasn't going to that position whether that's truly adaptation or neural, whatever it is, I started utilizing some stretching, the doorway peck stretch, and that I felt that helped me and that felt better. With that, I turned that into more of a rehab program, started loading the shoulder now that I could in certain positions before I couldn't press and get into that stretch with load because it was painful. Then I started using it in certain positions, but okay, like I need to, I have to get there, but I'm not quite strong enough to do it full weight yet. Can't do it yet. What do you do? And that's where the dynamic stretch and some light load can help. That's awesome. Yeah, I find it really ironic, but I've been working on my left shoulder external rotation. Yeah, just because my right side is the more dominant side, right? I'm throwing balls with this side. I'm throwing with my son. So with regards to like my left shoulder, I simply just lied on a foam roll, allowed the arm just to hang into external rotation. Everyone loves it. Exactly. Two to five pounds in my hand. Eventually my arm. Statically gain more external rotation. So I guess what I did, I put my knuckles into the floor. I started loading into external rotation. So essentially static stretching definitely has this merit, especially when you're just allowing gravity or an external load to drag you into that position, but once you can access that position now it's time to actually get strong and stable within that position, which again, that's for another conversation, I don't know if we can get all into that, but I just appreciate again, that we're working on the same things. Yeah. Yeah. What sort of now when, let's say somebody's injured, so I know we deal a lot with either people that are injured. Most people go to PT if something's injured, they're symptomatic in some ways. So let's say somebody either recently gets injured versus somebody that has a more chronic issue, let's say chronic, chronic knee pain versus acute knee pain. Somebody just sprained it. When would you. Yeah. Thank you. Indicate stretching or would you strengthen first or would you rest first? A lot of people, they just rest on a couch and that's been like the norm many years ago. What would you do specifically for these types of personnel? I think that, like most cases that depends on where they're at with their pain and their range of motion and what they can do. Ideally, we're all, I think in that session, we're all doing some sort of it may not fall under heavy strengthening or heavy load. You're doing some sort of strength, whether it's neuromuscular retraining. So you're working potentially a quad set, a hamstring curl and isometric, just something to get that range back ranges mostly, especially when it comes to something like a knee, like we need that knee extension right away. After any knee procedure, really. And if you don't get that right away, you run into issues out of line. So what are you going to do? What are we working with that limits or that could potentially have an impact on that knee extension? You're working with calf tightness, hamstring tightness, quad weakness, patterning, just the practice of it. So with that, potentially you're pushing into some heel slides and then you're working into a quad stretch, maybe on your stomach or depending on the knee surgery. But these sort of tissues, not only do they have to fire up. But they may not be strong enough to strengthen through full range of motion to get that range back, which is sometimes the argument for why don't, why stretch, why don't you just strengthen full range of motion? Because they just had surgery. So you're working in that. And I think you didn't give that enough credit. But you could potentially do, and this is very basic, a prone quad stretch, which may not look what you're expecting it to be. It's not going to be heel to butt on your stomach. You're just working with getting some gentle range, hamstring stretch. You could be seated with your foot on the ground and just hinging forward. You're not like cranking into it. Lots of ways to include what this might look like without being excessive on the load. And that's doable for someone that just had, for example, a knee surgery. Yeah, absolutely. I think I know a lot of people, especially in social media have been downing, like the role of static stretching for, does nothing static stretching, there is research to show that static stretching has some sort of decrement to your sprint speed, your vertical, your power output. But again, especially with surgery, there is some merit towards that and static stretching. If you think about it still, nonetheless, even though you're not actually contracting musculature, it's still some sort of external load, right? So you're still loading it according to the person's capacity, especially if they just had a recent surgery or an acute strain. So I think that, yeah, if you're trying to perform squats right away, you're trying to get into deep squat. That might just be oftentimes just way too much load and you're irritating the person. And then therefore. The psychosocial aspects where they're fearing near their fearing squats. So essentially getting into a prone quad stretch, like you said, allows them potentially to access more ranges of motion and therefore a PT like ourselves would educate and say, Hey, this is exactly the type of range that you might need for a squat. Just allows them again to psychosocially gain more confidence there. Does, would you say that with regards to like the nervous system and how you potentially you coach your clients and how you treat your clients? Do you speak to them about. The psychosocial aspects. And I guess I'm already alluding to it because I already know your style. And but yeah, tell us a little bit about how that plays into, start the stretching versus also the psychosocial aspects. Yeah, I think part of that has to do with the person in front of you. And sometimes it's very much like they are, there's a big barrier of I can't do this. My knee doesn't go that way. What are you talking about? And this is, I think it's the most common when we see after knee surgery, when someone comes in and you're like, heel size is like one of the first things that you have them. And generally after one session, they've already gained 20 degrees, whether or not that's muscle strength that's, or that's length happening in the quad or just basic knee range of motion. That alone exposing to someone exposing someone to a position that they have not since been able to achieve is really eye opening for them, especially if that position was. Historically, a little daunting. If I just, I'd be scared about bending my knee too. It's fine. But that can really push someone over and I think that they can really help them. And you can always see like the look in their eyes when they finally get there. They're like, Oh my gosh, Whoa. I didn't know I could do that. It's every time. Yep. Yeah. I love building that up too, because with any injury, regardless of if it's acute or it's chronic, I think there, there's a lot of practitioners that fail to realize that there is always a psychosocial aspect, whether they're a high level athlete or somebody that's decrepit, disabled, and is getting back to walking for the first time in life. Nonetheless, stretching in all forms of exercise. allows a window of opportunity for them to gain confidence in their ability to move again. And sometimes they honestly do need a helping hand. They need somebody to say, Hey, look at this range. Hey, look at how stretching has improved your ability to go walk up and down the stairs. And I think that again, self efficacy is just the innate belief that you can do it, right? It's instilling that belief and via stretching and by a strengthening, it's not just exercise. It's not just building tissue. It's actually, it's. Training their brain to realize, Oh, shoot, like I can do this again. And I think that's just a very powerful thing in the physical therapy industry. I agree. And I think all of this will fall under range of motion, mobility, stretch, it's all under the same umbrella. And so you might like encounter are you truly stretching when you're doing that, or are you just taking the joint through more range of motion? If you think about what happens when we do stretch, whatever, when we take a joint and we put it in a new position, we have to honor the kinds of intricacies that happen in the muscles that surround that joint and that allow that mu muscle to even do what it's doing, whether it's the knee, the quad, and the hamstringing for the knee. So that's where I think the fascination of oh damn, there's actually a lot going on here that. If we pay attention and revisit our neuro notes and our physiology notes there's a science behind this, which is something I had to really sit down and review because I had my own biases going into this. I was like. All right. This is just brains in motion. Is it though, where are you actually getting some muscles to act, to change how they're firing and allow that range of motion, changing the joint lubrication and just so many layers to it. Yeah, for sure. I know that's getting very intricate and I want to keep this to a point where people can understand what exactly we're talking about. But yeah, just some, maybe just some general tips for people that let's say they're just getting into a program. How do you suggest for a person that your average show, or maybe somebody that's really sedentary that sits at a desk for a long period of time? What would you suggest in terms of frequency of stretching versus frequency of strength training? How would they go about it, or is that truly dependent on the person and their individual needs? I think it's dependent on what they can do. Which I think most of us will lead you like whatever you're going to do it. If you're going to do, if the stretch in between your workday makes you feel better and more ready to get into your workout later, by all means, if there's a certain range that's limiting you from performing the exercises you want in your workout later, Maybe pair those either do your homework during the day, make that a flexibility training goal or use it as a dynamic warmup if it's not that severe and that alone allows you to access that range. If you're training for a longer, a bigger flexibility goal, you're probably going to need to invest in some static stretching with your strengthening routine. Maybe you do it on an off day. You don't necessarily need to do it on the same day. And then before you go to the workout. You just pair a dynamic stretch potentially with a dynamic warmup, or you could also do a static stretch and then do a dynamic warmup. I think a lot of people end up reading like that static stretching diminishes power output before your workout and then they shy away from it. When you need quality those deficits are pretty negligible and then it's not that big. And they're mitigated with a dynamic warmup. So you could always do that before too, but you just have to be consistent as everything is going to be a part of your routine. And then you'll see those pay off. I think I briefly saw in your, in the pre the last kind of few chapters talking about how is this incorporated into somebody's life? It's something where. I've said this to my clients all the time. It's yeah your morning stretch, your morning five minutes. And then let's say your nighttime five minutes, that's a total of 10 minutes versus you're sitting for eight to 10 hours a day. It's which one's going to win. And then when you put it into that perspective, you're like, damn, that seesaw is just weighing down, right? You're just on a downhill decline. I'm really big on that. I consider myself just somebody that. That kind of embeds part of this, as a part of my life, and non negotiable. So how would somebody essentially going from. Just not doing anything towards really building it into your life and what do you what sort of tips do you teach in your book specifically on how people can integrate it rather than leaving this out as like an option or being reactive when their body is symptomatic, right? I think part of it is being intentional about goals and really reviewing what is it that you hope to get out of this now? It's I have no starting point. I just want to get started. Then you can pick anything you want and work into that range. There's a beginner set that's the range is typically 30 to 60 seconds. Static stretch holds two to three sets. Roughly. It's about two to three minutes worth per stretch hanging out into that and adding that to your routine. If you're going to, a lot of it, a lot of the book is going to say also supplement this with XYZ. You could tell it's a pretty movement forward, but book, I like to joke that you can tell a physical therapist wrote it but there's really no like wrong way to get started. If it's just really pay attention to your body, don't push too hard. Make sure you feel what it should feel good. Nothing should feel. It's like a sharp pain might feel uncomfortable at first and that's normal. But if it's like lingering and it's keeping you up at night and the next day, then you stretch too hard. So there's a little bit of a guideline of what to feel for, what not to feel for and how to keep doing that. Yeah. We I use still the sins type of principle, which is severity, irritability, nature and stage. So with regards to severity, you're thinking, okay I'm in the stretch. Is this a. Seven out of 10 pain. Yeah. If it is, then you're probably guarding and you're probably defeating the purpose of stretching and then irritability. Exactly. What later was talking about, which is if that pain is lingering afterwards, it's keeping you up at night. You likely did an excessive amount of stretching or excessive amount of anything, and therefore you might want to back up and don't think about avoidance, just think about modifying or titrating the amount of volume or intensity that you're actually doing right. So I, I think that overall, in terms of the stretch and strengthening principles, then how does that kind of lead into. obviously your sports clinical specialty. So how do people therefore kind of transition into the run, whether it's running or some sort of athletic endeavor, how do they mirror marry the two? Yeah, that's a good question. And I sometimes get people in that are. Already injured. So that's not like it's we're dealing with something already. And a lot of the times that's because we're dealing with this injury that has since been off, on the bench for a little bit. We're dealing with a loss of range of motion. We're doing a loss of strength. And so pairing those two along the rehab timeline, whether it's mid phase, early phase, and it's wow, like you are a hurdler and you can't get your knee very high already because your high hamstring is bothering you. How are you going to work into that and then pair it with strengthening in those motions when you gain those motions? Because we want to keep moving forward and be efficient with our time. And if you're just doing all this strengthening in a short range of motion, you may not be exposing that tendon, that muscle to what it's about to be in when the person goes to compete. So it's I always like to think of range of motion and strength together and two cars, like one might be progressing faster than the other at a certain point, you got to see, like where are they both at? Are we challenging both in the same way? And when I say range of motion challenge a year. You're challenging the tissues under that position in a way, and I think it's it takes a little reassessment throughout the rehab timeline, but eventually things should be loading the muscle and the joint and the tissues in the positions that person is going to be competing in or spending a lot of their time in. Carefully with a plan. Yeah. The word comes to mind is specific adaptations to impose a man. Especially if for example, I'm a basketball player and I've always said this people are like, Hey, why are you quarter squatting? Like, why are you doing that? It's because when I rebound and when I jump, that's the exact, like I'm not getting ass to grass with my squats. So therefore I utilize. Ask the grass squats more so to maintain good knee, hip and ankle mobility and to be able to be strong within those ranges of motion, but I'm still going to choose quarter pin squats because that's the exact position I'm going to be in. So to be intentional, like I said, latest at this, like five times over, be intentional with your stretching, be intentional with why you're doing it. Don't just do it just because you saw it look really sexy or cool on social media. So make sure that you have some sort of intention and make sure you have a why for why you're doing it. I guess a really great question and this is more up for debate, but I know a lot of people when they're in rehab, it's about stretching, strengthening, and a lot of times they're saying, hey you have pain with running. So if it hurts with running, just stop running and just do this stuff first. And then. You earn your way towards running. So what's your take on, do they just strengthen, do mobility up until they can access running and they have to earn their way towards running or can they run right away? What is your kind of take on that? I take them through a criteria. I'm one of those people, like ideally I'd like, there's gotta be a baseline strength. Like you gotta be able to sustain your body weight a bunch of different times on one leg that happens when we run, we go from one leg to the other. There's never a time we're on two legs. And so there's a base level of strength and symptom control and presentation where you need to graduate from to be able to introduce some of that. But on the other hand, I'm also big on gradual adaptation, progressive, just exposure, graded exposure to the activity. So I'm also okay with depending on the person. Introducing a walk job combo. I typically start with a walk job treadmill versus just going outside unless the environment is controlled. And that's fine. But I think you can be I think you can encourage, it depends on the person, but typically you can encourage a little bit of, okay if you're feeling this good and you're looking like this. Maybe start introducing a walk jog combo. You can walk 30 seconds, jog 20 seconds, or whatever that combination may be, and keep it under 10 minutes, for example. And I think it depends, but you can start dabbling in all the things you like to do. In doses before you're completely out. And I think sometimes people shy away from that because they're like, Oh no, I want to go to PT. I'm never going to be able to run until eight months. In reality, we're going to be working on it towards it. And I think it's, I think we can find comfort in that the body is resilient and adaptable. We can use that to our advantage and pushing towards the goals. I do those exact things, and I'm glad that we're in agreement with that in terms of the intervals and having those like rest pauses and incorporating that moderating your speed. That's why it is better to be on a treadmill because you can actually look at the numbers and be like, I'm running at three, four miles an hour, right? Versus you might be, I get my runners high and they're running at eight miles an hour when their knees not ready for it. And then the other aspect is just make sure I'm really big on this. Just make sure you're logging because great exposure. Sometimes you're feeling good. You do too much sometimes. Thanks. You're depressed and then you do way too little. So you're underdosing. So overall it's just the dosage that makes a poison. And if you want positive adaptations, just make sure you're not overdoing it. And especially with, again, with anything with a overstretching or over strengthening, you can definitely injure tissues, but at the same time, just make sure that, with with the right program and structure you're, the body is extremely resilient and it can adapt to many different circumstances. And that's where the psychosocial aspects come into play where. You really are just exposing yourself to different challenges and, that's the creativity of the physical therapy industry. I appreciate later everything that you've been given and we just spit fire, just. in regards to stretching, strengthening, somebody that's injured, somebody that's a general Joe would you say in terms of like, why would somebody, especially for your book, the science stretch, why would somebody really want to at least expose himself and read it? And what sort of value can they truly get from this? I think it just it clears up a lot of that mystery around stretching and then it. I think you might come across any stretch book that you really see right now, I think is pretty dogmatic and it's do the splits and it's just a lot of why you should stretch when in reality, that's not what this book is doing. It's not telling you to stretch. It's telling you what happens when you stretch and it's empowering you to make that decision on your own. The body's cool. A lot of cool stuff happens when we put it under load. There's. benefits to stretching that go beyond just range of motion. It's a mode of pain management sometimes. And that alone can do so much for people. There's some cool stuff that happens with blood pressure. It's just whether or not it's not a book that is do the splits tomorrow. But it's a really nice resource and it just breaks down the certain movements. If you're a visual learner. These graphics are gorgeous, and this is something the science of books are known for. I didn't know this, but they're known for being very visually pleasing and visually easy to read. There's colors. There's diagrams. It's really cool. I have it right here and I can show you a little bit like this is, for example. The like the muscles are annotated the directions are all there. It's really clear, but I think it's a resource to keep on your bookshelf. If you're someone who's planning on moving is interested in moving this. And by I'm biased, but get all the books because they're also interesting. But this would just be such a good gateway to just. Owning that movement a little bit better for sure. And I definitely will be a fan of yours and definitely grab the book or, I'll see it in my local library. So I'll definitely give it a read and I'll definitely tell my friends. I appreciate your time later. You've, you have so much value. Appreciate you. It's a privilege just to have you on the podcast and to share your wisdom for those that maybe want to learn more about you or learn more about the book in general where can they find you? You can find me mostly on Instagram@DrMalekPT, D R M A L E K P T. It's the same as my website. I'm on all the socials. And the book is available on Amazon, on Penguin Random House. It's available in a lot of places, so if you're interested, there's Target, Walmart. Powell's all the booksellers. It's just type in science of stretch Leada, and then you'll see it. It's pretty big. Awesome. Later. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. I'm sure we'll definitely keep in touch. Do more collaboration things like that. And just continuing to inspire more people to move and live healthier lives. I appreciate your time. Back at you. Thank you. Take care.