Dancing was the greatest gift of joy and healing in my life. The beauty now is that through Lastics, I get to give this gift of integration between body, self and mind to others.
~ Donna Flagg
Believers
"I love Lastics because it takes into account the entire body and not just the part being stretched. It is intelligent stretching that builds strength, alignment and overall movement quality. I do an hour of Lastics and then teach a dance class able to demonstrate choreography free from worry about injury."
Mimi Quillin
Bob Fosse Dancer
"Lastics is a great way to prepare your body for any kind of movement. Within one class I saw a huge improvement in my flexibility, as well as my balance and control. This truly works wonders!"
Marina Micalizzi
Billy Elliot on Broadway
“I found muscles that I never felt before and was much more limber than usual afterwards."
Randy Foye
Denver Nuggets, NBA
"Lastics has been completely new and rewarding experience for the Joffrey Academy students. It has helped them think about using their muscles in different ways in ballet class as it incorporates exercises that both stretch and strengthen muscles."
Anna Reznik
Academy Artistic Director, Joffrey Chicago
"These exercises actually do what all the other exercises say they do, but really don't. I do a lot of yoga and used to be an athlete. Lastics was the best stretch I've ever had, bar none. You won’t believe how good you feel afterwards."
Hoyt Richards
Supermodel
"It’s definitely a different approach to stretching that works. It released the gripping I’d been feeling for years in my lower and middle back."
Dr. Andrew Feldman, M.D.
NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, New York Medical College and Head Physician, The New York Rangers
About Lastics
Lastics is the brainchild of Donna Flagg, a trained dancer holding a BA in dance from Rutgers University, MA in education, and advanced post masters degree in business from New York University.
As a dancer, there was constant pressure on Donna’s body - pressure that balanced strength and flexibility because unlike most athletes, the training itself requires dancers to be as strong as they are flexible. When that balance was disrupted later in her career, a major knee injury requiring partial reconstructive surgery was the result.
Her own personal healing process was the beginning of turning Lastics Stretch Technique into a codified method.
In her research, alongside PT, rehab and personal training, something struck Donna as unusual. It was the combination of inconsistencies in the science, and then also in what she perceived as similar contradictions in her actual hands-on training and therapy.
For starters, technical information to support strength training was plentiful, and the application of those theories was evident in the practical sense as well: Donna’s strength came back in a steady, noticeable way. But there was no such equivalent in restoring flexibility. Flexibility training was, and still is, nonexistent. What lacks are the technical underpinnings and expertise that inform strength training.
The contrast between healing and rehabilitative modalities is glaring when you look at stretch versus strength. Namely, with strength, much time and effort is spent training to develop strength and build muscle. But with stretch, common practice is to rely on someone else to do the work. This is not training the muscles and it is rather nonsensical when considering how strength training works.
To that end, Lastics will change the way you think about, and understand, your body. It significantly improves your body awareness by revealing a very special connection of muscle to mind.
There are many ways you can learn how to stretch, teach stretch, train athletes, and rehab injuries at Lastics. We have online training at Lastics U, as well as classes in NYC and on Zoom. We also offer private online and in-person coaching for specific, targeted goals.
So, join the movement! You’ll move, perform and feel better with muscles that are longer, stronger, more supple and healthy from the inside-out and end-to-end!
Our Approach
