Outer Reach

Writer: Ryan Willms
Photographer: Lucy Murray Willis

Collaborative Functional Mobility

As with many topics over the years, there’s a stigmatization around words, concepts and ideas whether or not they are true or only half the story. This is the case when it comes to stretching, and Outer Reach’s mission is to reconnect people with their bodies, find a deeper balance and feel more integrated.

While the Tribeca studio offers a variety of classes and group stretches, it’s their one-on-one sessions that provide the most connection with their expert teachers, and more importantly to yourself. The benefits of stretching have been debated over the years; which kind is best, when is it best to do it, how do you know if you need to do it? Naturally if we feel something is tight or tense, we might take notice and pay attention to it by stretching that specific muscle. But what if it’s tight because it’s counter-muscle is too loose? Or perhaps because you’re posture isn’t optimal? The concept that stretching as a one way process is dangerous and could easily led to injury without looking at the whole picture. It’s just as possible that our muscles and ligaments have too much slack as it is they may be too tight, and we generally need help to feel what’s really going on.

From my own experience as an amateur athlete my entire life, I became so incredibly out of touch with my own body I found myself continually getting injured with no evident pattern. It’s only been in retrospect that I can see this, because I never got the insight I needed. Unless we study the body in a holistic way day in and day out, it’s very challenging to really know what’s going on, or even what is supposed to be going on, especially with ourselves. Through her own daily exploration Toni Melaas created the Outer Reach Method, after two decades in the field, working with a variety of somatic modalities, supporting professional dancers and learning from Sherry Saterstrom, Elena Brower and Gerald Casel to name a few. Toni developed this unique method so that she could train teachers and practitioners to approach the body with a holistic perspective, combining the enjoyment of moving with therapeutic applications and functional techniques.

The method itself is designed to be an engaging process. The client doesn’t lay there passively, they are working in-tune with the practitioner to work explore their body. It’s an opportunity to re-learn healthy movement and how it should feel. The method aides in increasing range of movement, mobility, stability and the potential for effective strength training. By starting at the core, encouraging muscle to bone connection, you will begin to feel more deeply. The process is relaxing, but feels like a light workout. It can activate your body, increasing energy but more importantly leave you feeling empowered to use your body more effectively.

Leaving my session at Outer Reach, I felt more in touch with myself; where my shoulder should be sitting and how to move laterally with more stability, and that was just after one hour. In the end, it’s about finding the tools that allow us to take responsibility for our lives, and it’s pretty challenging to live life to the fullest without nurturing our bodies. They are our chief instrument for how to experience ourself and our environment, which contributes to how we can express ourselves. By taking care of our physical self, we are able to live each day more fully.

Outer Reach
345 Greenwich St New York, NY 10013