Healing through movement

For rehab or pre-hab, our trainers have the expertise to help you feel great in your body again and break the cycle of pain.  Many people who suffer from chronic pain  can get lost in a cycle where movement hurts, therefore fear of moving escalates and the pain prohibits the body from moving, in turn, one does not get the knowledge one needs to heal. The approach we take to movement  focuses on current research and best practices in exercise science and human performance.  We help our clients understand what is stable and what is mobile improving awareness and proprioception and nurturing the process of healing.  We assess movement patterns and teach our clients proper muscle recruitment patterns thereby teaching your body how to best support itself and make moving a pleasure.

We often see people who have inappropriately progressed their exercise regime- loading too soon, reinforcing dysfunctional movement patterns that have built up tension and imbalance that leads to pain that is not an orthopedic issue,  Understanding the design of your body and re-educating it (and you) to serve you well is a paramount objective in our client relationships. We believe in the body’s innate ability to heal itself given the proper tools and information. We have the expertise to help break the cycle of pain.  If we can’t, we’re honest and work within the scope our practice and can refer you to trusted relationships with medical professionals

We assess movement patterns and teach our clients proper muscle recruitment patterns thereby teaching your body how to best support itself and make moving a pleasure.  Our teachers have extensive training in Pilates, exercise science and movement therapies.  We are a group of diverse, holistic, committed professionals and are confident that our skills and expertise can support every person in their pursuit of vitality.

“The Oov is a self-regulating feedback device for you to have an experience of your own body. It turns something that can be subjective, like someone telling you what’s going on in your body, to an objective experience for yourself. Something that you start to learn about your own body, you start to feel things happening in your own body rather than someone telling you what’s going on.”

—Daniel Vladeta

The OOV was developed by Daniel Vladeta, an Australian osteopath who saw a need for a self-correcting device that would embed motor learning.  A revolutionary device, the Oov is ergonomically designed to compliment the 3 curves of the spine and mimic natural movement. The OOV is an unstable, proprioceptive, bio-feedback tool, that re-patterns and enhances efficient movement. While working on the Oov one can facilitate functional movement and create stability through improving mobility.

In one on one sessions, we will assess and identify where instability and restriction exist in the body, and how to develop strategies to promote improved motor control, strength, endurance, proper alignment and increase dynamic stability through the 3D activation of myofascial slings. The Oov teaches your body how to realign, simply and quickly.  Once you are relaxed, pain disappears, performance enhances and you are happily scratching your head about what happened.   In addition to private work on the Oov, we offer Pilates based classes.  Alaya Sexton, the co-owner of Iron & Grace is one of the only Pilates teachers in the mid Atlantic to have advanced training on this revolutionary tool and actively pursues continuing education as the techniques evolve.