Level II Upper Body (CFT-II UB)
Faculty: Ann Frederick, MFS, CSI and Chris Frederick, PT, MFS, CSI and certified assistants.
24 Contact Hours
Level: Advanced (APTA guidelines)
Cost: $849
Registration: please call Robin at 480-394-9121 (AZ MT) to place a deposit or installment payment to hold your place or email her at robin.stwi@gmail.com.
Course Dates
Oct 16 - Oct 18, 2009
Course Times
Registration: 7:30AM - 8:00AM
Friday: 8:00AM - 6:00PM
Saturday: 7:30AM - 5:30PM
Sunday: 8:00AM - 2:00PM
Target audience: Manual and manipulative therapists & physicians, physical therapists, all bodyworkers and massage therapists, Pilates instructors, personal trainers, exercise physiologists, kinesiologists, sport therapists and strength & conditioning specialists have all greatly benefited from using these techniques alone or creatively coordinated with other approaches to achieve superior results.
Enrollment limited (exact number TBA during course promotion)
Course notice: course content is not intended for use by participants outside the scope of their license or regulation.
Course description:
This course qualifies as an Advanced level workshop (as defined by the American Physical Therapy Association's guidelines) since it assumes that the participants have a thorough familiarity with the topics of gross human anatomy, connective tissue anatomy, kinesiology, assisted stretching and flexibility training. Therefore, it focuses on advanced techniques, recent advances, and future directions in Fascial Stretch Therapy™ and in increasing your understanding and clinical application of this material.
This is the second of a two part workshop series. You must successfully complete both parts by passing a written and a practical exam with an 80% grade to earn qualification as a Level II Certified Flexibility Therapist (CFT-II).
This second part is a 3 day live workshop intensive where you will learn advanced principles, theories and evidenced based science surrounding the subject of lengthening human fascia through our assisted technique and creation called Fascial Stretch Therapy™ (also known as FST™). The most recent research and clinical findings from the 2007 First International Fascia Research Congress that we attended at Harvard Medical School up until the present time will be included. Comparison and contrasts with other forms of manual and assisted therapy to stretch or lengthen fascia will also be discussed.
This workshop is 85% hands-on and focuses on acquiring more advanced skills at evaluating the state of the myofascia of the upper half of the body from the T-12 vertebra on up to the head and upper extremities. This is accomplished by learning how to more accurately sense the endfeel of connective tissue through advanced triplanar range of motion challenge tests to the torso, shoulder girdle, upper extremities and spine. After learning how to specifically identify regions of fascial imbalance you will learn how to conduct an advanced upper body assisted fascial stretch session for primarily healthy and fit clientele. Clients most appropriate for this level of training will be those that run the gamut from simply wanting to be more flexible in order to maintain an active lifestyle to those complaining of general or specific tightness or stiffness rather than pain. Teenagers experiencing myofascial tightness from the growth spurt will also be appropriate. All athletes will seek your services to help them improve sport performance and reduce training recovery time.
For healthcare practitioners who treat pain and mechanical dysfunction, this is the second level needed to get the expertise to progress to the third level as a Certified Flexibility Specialist. Only qualified licensed healthcare practitioners are admitted to the third level, a comprehensive workshop where diagnosis and treatment protocols specific to fascia are addressed, explored and mastered to integrate with and complement your existing manual skill set.
Upon completion of this course you should be able to:
- Explain and demonstrate to your client or patient the difference between traditional stretching and fascial stretching both scientifically and anecdotally.
- Be able to accurately assess the state and status of a client's or patient's general and specific flexibility in the upper body.
- Accurately use the correct parameters-intensity, duration, frequency-of assisted stretching to match the needs and requirements of your client.
- Accurately screen whether assisted stretching is appropriate for your client.
- Accurately determine if the shoulder joint capsule in normals is hypomobile and needs tractional stretching or whether it is hypermobile and needs to be left alone.
- Have the skills needed to greatly improve the flexibility and function of the vast majority of your current clients.
- Have the ability to render effective assisted stretch sessions to highly flexibility challenged individuals.
- Have the ability to render advanced assisted stretching to help athletes make significant changes in their sport performance and in speeding up recovery.
- Have the skills and confidence to render effective sessions to challenging individuals who are fast twitch dominant and have highly reactive nervous system responses to assisted stretching (or other therapeutic assisted movements).
- Be able to adapt to your client or workplace needs by providing high quality FST in as little as 10 minutes or as long as 1 hour depending on needs and goals.
- Have much better results with assisted stretching than you have had in the past.
- For healthcare practitioners, you should be able to successfully integrate FST™ as an essential manual therapy skill that enhances your overall abilities to diagnose and treat as dictated by your license, specialty or certification.
Course developers/Faculty:
- Primary faculty for all coursework are the Directors of the STWI:
- Chris Frederick, PT, MFS, CSI
Chris is a licensed physical therapist, Master Flexibility Specialist and Certified Structural Integrationist. He is also CEO of Stretch to Win, an Arizona corporation in the business of providing services in physical therapy, Fascial Stretch Therapy™, Structural Integration, Pilates and Sports and Therapeutic Massage Therapy. Chris spends 30 hours per week actively treating patients at the Center. He is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association, the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and The International Association of Structural Integrators. - Ann Frederick, MFS, CSI
Ann is a Master Flexibility Specialist, Certified Structural Integrationist and creator of Fascial Stretch Therapy™. She is President and Founder of the Stretch to Win Center and has been a teacher of human movement through professional and academic dance education and kinesiology since 1975. Ann was faculty associate in Arizona State University's Dance and Exercise Science departments 1996-1998. Ann spends 30 hours per week actively seeing clients at the Center. She is a member of The International Association of Structural Integrators. - Assistants to primary faculty are Flexibility Therapists or Specialists in good standing and certified by the STWI.
- Ratio of faculty/assistant to workshop attendee under instruction is approximately 1:4.
Prerequisite for CFT-II-UB and Certification: Successful completion of CFT-II-LB plus 100 documented hours of practice utilizing Level II-LB FST™ on actual clients.

