justinchien

Thanks for the kinds words, Adley. At the end of days, each person needs to have his/her own program to practice on. Nothing wrong about it! 😉 You reminded me there is another resources offered by Stretch Therapy Boston: we have video-on-demand for the class each week. If someone misses a class, he/she can catch up with the video. Although it is not as interactive as the live Zoom class, that's the next best thing to continue the practice. Cheers! -Justin Stretch Therapy Boston / Stretch Therapy Boston Facebook

One more comment: yes, the studio lights make a big difference! I attached a picture of my original setup in this post. What have changed since then: 1) I use white umbrellas instead of the silver reflecting umbrella now. Otherwise, it was too bright for my eyes to see anything. 😀 2) I use just two umbrellas on each side, instead of 3. It's easier to set them up and take them down. 3) I use the tile lights on the wall above the sofa to provide additional lighting. I can change the brightness/colors of the tiles based on how much light is coming into the room (big difference between summer and winter). These lights are small profile and not expensive. I fit them under the sofa and take them out before the class starts. They are working pretty good still after close to 2 years of usage.

Hey Nathan! Thanks for the kind words. Hope you are doing well there in Japan. Sorry that I haven't spent too much time at the forum here... Just try to drop in now and then to feel less guilty. 😀 I believe I shared my setup for holding the online classes back in April, 2020. To answer your question: I got a new MacBook Pro 14" with a much better camera to host the Zoom online classes. The video quality is great now. I use Apple TV to show the picture of the series that is covered currently as well as the Stretch Therapy Boston logo (see below). I used my iPad to play some classical music via the speakers of my MacBook Pro, which feeds into the Zoom meeting. There is music before we start the class while the camera is pointing to the TV with the pictures mentioned above. If any student joins in and I am not in front of the camera, they know they come to the right class! I also got two studio lights to make me look clear via Zoom. These lights are pretty easy to put up and fold back down. I continue posting pictures of exercises from the class on my Facebook page right after each class. It's a visual reference for the students. My setup and take-down time for getting the class ready in my living room is about 10 minutes. I try to keep it as low effort as possible. As a whole, this is probably as convenient as I want it to be. I am not looking into over-optimizing the setup currently. Hope that answers your question! It will be great to hear how others may set up the online classes differently than I do. Cheers! -Justin Stretch Therapy Boston / Stretch Therapy Boston Facebook

Hello all, To kick off the new year, I decided to cover these two new courses published by K&O last year in my online classes. We had a great time going over them! Here are the arrangements: Covering both courses in parallel: "Overcome Neck Pan" on Tuesday and "Overcome Back Pain" on Thursday One-hour online class, and two classes each week Started and ended at the same time. It took us 2 months to finish the series. Let me share the course plan with you (see the picture below). You are welcome to reference/borrow it! Please feel free to reach out if you have any question/comment. Cheers! -Justin Stretch Therapy Boston / Stretch Therapy Boston Facebook

Just want to plus one to Nathan's comment. As an example, the constant posting from Gymnasticbodies on Facebook is a big turn-off to me. GMB's recurring email is a good reference as a cadence, in terms of frequency and content. I would be more conscious about using #. It's a good tool but there are too much of tagging out there to my taste. Sorry if I may sound a little grumpy to some... With a classy marketing, it would attract the people who are more sustainable to practice ST. -Justin PS: I think you got someone for Chinese for the video. My Chinese is still good if you still need any extra help.

Hello all, I actually posted two days in a row - this is a record for me. I will try to be more involved here. :-) A couple of clarifications: I completely agree with the idea of the online materials should be a complete package. It shouldn't be a teaser - teaser is for the promotional purpose. My thinking is: this is the "absolute" beginner's stretching series. If the content is too complicate/challenging or too much, some folks will be lost. It is nothing to do with the quality of the material, of course. Kit and Olivia always have great quality content. It's more about constructing the material to help the beginners experience enough of ST, so they understand why it is different and effective. They will ask for more. In terms of asking for more, that's the challenge of building an eco-system of support. I have folks checking out the existing videos. They would tell me that it is the same as this and that. I would ask them "let's try it together". After we work in person, they would tell me "this is different than what I thought". My point is: we all need support. Studying alone is a tough way to make forward progress. Few can but most can't. Providing the materials online is a good way to reach out to folks. Establishing and providing some contacts can be an effective way of offering support, for a continuous practice. We have a growing network of practitioners who are willing to help. Let's see if we can utilize it. Even the people who are not in the same state, it is still closer than cross-continent. As an example, the forums here are great resources. The advantage and disadvantage is (as always for a discussion forum like this): the amount of information and the lengthy history of the conversation. As a result, it can be information overloaded. A beginner can find it challenging to walk through the material. I have folks checking out the forums and quitted. I would talk with them about what subjects they were interested, and explain to them what I understand. Personal interaction is a great way of transferring the knowledge. It's true that some people are just high maintenance. If you offer the right trigger for them to realize what they are missing, they will embrace it fully. They just need a little coaching. I am spoiled by the accessibility of the internet in US. I am surprised to learned that how tough it is in Australia and in Japan. I would go for a slower Internet connection to exchange for a better president. Sigh... Sorry, had to go there... :-| No matter where you are, have a good rest of the day! -Justin

Hello all, I am a bit behind to this party - sorry! :-) I just scanned this growing thread quickly. Let me share some thinking points for your consideration. I apologize in advance for any redundant comments. Putting on my ST practitioner hat: I went to a holiday party here in US just last night. I ran into a couple of fitness trainers and Yoga teachers who I have never met before. I chatted with them a little, and had an opportunity to demo a shoulder stretch on one guy as a talking point. They have reached out to me, and are interested in checking out ST. This has happened to me often enough in my classes or in the social interactions. I know there is no lack of interest in ST. It is good stuff - as simple as that. If you show them and help them experience it, they will come. The challenge is, how to create enough of visibility and establish a sustainable eco-system of support to keep challenging the participants. Especially, there are lots of noise out there, but quality systems are few. Putting on my computer engineering hat: 1) To create a broader visibility, use any channels that you can come up with (plenty were mentioned in this thread already), as long as not being annoying and provide a pointer to the mothership of information (one place, and one place only if possible). 2) There are multiple platforms to consider in terms of creating a positive user experience. There may be a need to adjust the media presentation based on the platform, from desktop to touch devices (such as smart phone and tablet). For touch devices, there may be options of using native app or web-based app (and of course, what web browser you are using can be a factor too). Just look at how Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. created different experience based on desktop, phone, tablet, etc. for the same app (such as Numbers in Apple's eco-system). Putting on my program management hat: With the above comment in mind, the simpler we can make proceed, the easier we can reach out to the user and help them experience ST. It is also more manageable to administrate these materials and platforms. :-) Absolute beginner's stretch series: I think it's great that we will offer solo stretches as a starting point. If possible, we should be sensitive about this: a beginner won't be able to process what a (reasonable) end pose may be, since they are still learning about it. The focus, perhaps, is to help someone experience ST to the point that, they are interested in reaching out to contact class - if it is available to them. Specifically, they can feel the difference via the materials, and get them curious enough to ask for more. Speaking for myself, I have laptop, iPad, and iPhone. As much as Wifi is really accessible in US, I prefer downloading the materials (videos, audios, documents, etc.) on all 3 devices. Depending on where I am and what I am doing, I have used all 3 devices (separately of course) to help me refine my knowledge in ST. Again, if someone is exposed to ST, they will love it. We need to help them with a reachable support to enable a sustainable learning. Contact classes are great if these classes are available. If not, offer some local contacts (as local as possible) is another option. So they have someone whom they can interact with. It makes a huge difference to have a community of practice. Finally, I was playing with my Apple AirPods and recording my own meditation scripts. The sound quality is actually pretty good. :-) Please let me know if I can clarify anything. Thanks for advancing the techniques continuously and sharing them openly. Cheers, and happy stretching! -Justin

Extracted the following from an email conversation with Kit recently. Sorry, I haven't been an active participant at the forum. I will do better this year. :-) I was building a website recently to organize how I do leadership/organization/execution/people coaching at Intel. Basically, I use an empirical approach to help leaders to grow in a constant changing environment. I then remember this topic in Kit's email when the new videos were released: how to structure the programs targeted at teachers vs. people who just want to follow along? Here are some ideas to share with you: 1. For a follow-along program, Ryan's GMB does a great job with their Element program. It's an effective daily practice companion. Although there are lots of repetitions in the program, the goal is to get folks into a routine. It works. This is a different methodology than releasing a follow-along video. A follow-along video is a one time thing, more or less. It's a good reference, but something enables a regular practice works better, I believe. 2. Ryan's Vitamin program (the next step) is less effective in my opinion. Compared to Element, there are more specific skills to practice and more varieties to follow in Vitamin. He does a great job of describing what to do and he really knows what he is going. However, it's a bit challenging to follow and finish the whole program via the video. Specifically, people can get stuck quickly. 3. Teachers vs. people who want to just practice stretching: They need completely different things. I always believe that training teachers is about coaching them to be self-driven and empowered. You want them to have enough of skills to handle different situations with different clients. In addition, every teacher has something to contribute. The goal is to maximize his/her unique strengths to move the whole program forward. Just like what Kit and Miss O did at the master trainer class and the Monkey gym in Canberra. I observed what they did (very empirical) and I absolutely love how they handled the knowledge development and the knowledge sharing among all trainers (hand-on interactions). For the people who want to follow along: they only need the critical things. I still remember that Kit prefers to use just 3 cues to guide the participant for each pose in a typical class. That's my point about not giving too much to the participants all at once. Otherwise, I call it information hoarding. The participants can get overwhelmed quickly. Just use the critical cues to get them moving to begin with. It does not mean giving less instructions, but offer something different. I try to make sure that the participants in my class can reflect/contemplate on how they feel from each pose, by asking some questions during the practice. For example, "did you notice anything changed or different?" during or after a pose. When the participants can "feel" the differences, you train them to be self-driven and to be curious for more. When they ask follow up questions, you know they are ready for more. Translating what I said above in terms of how to arrange the videos: for the teachers, introduce more variations and options, and a cadence to grow together. For the follow-along people: less variations but more checking-in real-time. I hope this is helpful! Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can clarify further! Love, -Justin

Reposted from an email that I sent to Kit and Olivia today. Kit thought it may be useful for others to read this. Also cross-posting in Kit's blog site. Have a good day everyone! -Justin ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Justin Chien <justin.chien@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 10:52 AM Subject: Book title To: *KitL <kit_l@me.com>, Olivia Allnutt <o_p1@mac.com> Hi there, I meant to mention this in my upcoming video to you. It has been a couple of months and I still couldn't find a chance to finish the video. Let me use a note instead then. Especially, it may be timely for your thought process. You recently mentioned about "Stretch with Awareness", and earlier "Stretch Mindfully" for the book title. Both of them are good. For the sake of offering a different thinking and trying to go for a different route of what folks have been communicating so far, let me share what I have in mind. "Awareness" and "Mindfully" are good words, and do reflect on what your approach is. I am wondering if it is a bit too New Age. I wonder how about something like "Intelligent Stretch". The reasons: What your approach (based on my personal learning/reflection) is bringing out the intelligence within ourselves by applying intelligent and evolving techniques. There are tons of stretching references out there. Lots of them do promote awareness and mindfulness. It's all good but a bit selling out. I believe your approach is different because it is smart, systematic, and... intelligent! I still remember your closing remark for the Monkey Gym is: "If there is no student, there is no teacher" - wonderful words. As an analogy, if there is no intelligence of the body/us to begin with, there is no need for any techniques. The intelligence within can be what people believe to be - physical, mental, and spiritual. It's a personal journey and a discovery. We sort of mentioning awareness and mindfulness without mentioning it with the wording of "Intelligent Stretch". The word "Intelligent" sounds more technical than New Age. A good selling point for intellectual readers who believe they are intellectual. We got to cover the marketing aspect, right? I was asking myself how I can go for a different route than the current conversation is. My $0.02. I hope this is some-how useful. Have a good rest of the day! -Justin -- Justin Chien Justin's Yoga & Flexibility Website: http://justinchien.org Email: justin.chien@gmail.com Phone: 978-549-1865