Stretch yourself happy! It’s how the A-list unwind - a new fitness trend that promises to boost your body and your mood

Having wrenched my lower back trying to stop my children fighting, I feel physically and emotionally ruined, fit only for ice, painkillers and a stooped hobble to the sofa.

The last thing I want to do is exercise - even exercise that starts with me lying on a massage table. But ‘stretchpert’ Suzanne Waterworth, 35, insists that a bespoke session of her Moving Stretch therapy is exactly what I need.

‘You’ll feel sunnier afterwards,’ she says. ‘It tends to make people feel lighter, more energetic, empowered.’

Writer Anna Maxted (pictured lying on her back) tried out a bespoke session of Suzanne Waterworth's Moving Stretch therapy

Suzanne’s approach combines resistance stretching - moving with tensed muscles against an opposing force - with barefoot walking massage, where she gently pads the length of her client’s body using her heels and toes to iron out knots of tension. It increases flexibility and strength and works wonders for your state of mind.

No wonder resistance stretching is the exercise of the moment. Suzanne, whose clients include billionaire businessmen, rock stars and elite athletes, teaches at the super-cool Triyoga centre in North London.

While I’d hoped to get away with just lying there limp as a jellyfish while Suzanne did all the work, it turns out this sort of stretching requires power, focus and energy.

Having assessed my physical imbalances - Suzanne is too kind to say, but essentially I have the posture of a cashew nut - she starts by opening out my concave chest and ‘coat-hanger shoulders’.

Lying on my back with my right arm in the air, Suzanne gently but firmly pushes my arm back as I tense my muscles and push against her. She alters the angle and rotation of my arm, so that I’m forced to make an effort.

‘I’m feeling a little anxiety in your muscle tissue, is that your natural state?’ she says.

Resistance stretching - moving with tensed muscles against an opposing force - is the exercise of the moment. Suzanne's clients include billionaire businessmen, rock stars and elite athletes

‘Yes,’ I squeak. She tells me that my nervous system needs to be calmed, to come out of fight or flight, to be more energised, to calm down and take control.

‘The mind and the body aren’t just linked, they overlap,’ she says. ‘With the stretching, I should be able to make you feel more resilient and more - I don’t want to say centred, because it sounds airy-fairy - but it is very powerful to feel grounded.

‘Good posture has been shown to make you happier. When you’re feeling angry, you tense your muscles. When I’m stretching people, sometimes I’m stretching out repressed emotions as well.’

This horizontal workout is as demanding as any gym-based exercise I’ve ever done.

Suzanne puts her back into it, meaning I’m obliged to match her. Heat floods my biceps, my blood pumps faster - at certain points the process is reminiscent of an arm wrestle.

Suzanne also does a barefoot walking massage, where she gently pads the length of her client’s body using her heels and toes to iron out knots of tension

‘Expect to ache a little tomorrow,’ Suzanne warns.

But I’m soon convinced that however peculiar it feels, it’s working. After ten minutes of concentrated joint exertion, Suzanne takes a photo of me.

The physical difference is remarkable: my left shoulder, which she is yet to work on, is stiff, forward, hovering just below my ear, and my right is lower, sloping - relaxed.

Resistance stretching, Suzanne explains, re-models and rejuvenates the fascia - the connective tissue that covers muscles and ‘keeps everything in place. So for instance, if you go for a jog, it stops your heart bouncing up and down like a yo-yo’.

Bad posture, poor diet, dehydration and injury can all contribute to a thickening of the fascia. But it’s not just physical trauma that’s the problem.

‘Repressed emotions and negative thoughts can also cause a build-up of this type of connective tissue,’ Suzanne says.

‘When people have certain emotional defences, it can create physical padding. I used to have a heavy forehead, but resistance stretching has almost completely re-modelled my face.

‘Often, if you see someone with a thickness across their shoulders, that’s defensive hunching. If you’re freeing yourself from old tissue, you’re getting rid of old beliefs and emotions as well.

‘The happiest, kindest people are the most beautiful people.’

As a result, Suzanne’s workout also impacts your mood. ‘When I stretch people, they often can’t believe how light they feel - physically and mentally. You feel happier because you’re not fighting against your own body.

‘Humans are designed for constant movement, if we could all move all day, we wouldn’t need to stretch.’

I immediately feel guilty. As I creep towards my late 40s, my body is more prone to injury - most recently back pain from attempting a yoga pose and hips that ached for a month after an enthusiastic session on the cross-trainer. But the less we move, the less we want to move and - eventually - can move.

Happily, anyone of any age can do this type of stretching.

Suzanne works her magic on the rest of my body and finishes by carefully padding up and down my legs to relieve tightness.

I don’t leave looking like a 21-year-old, but there’s certainly a spring in my step.

I had felt creaky, fossilised. But now I feel lighter - physically and in mood - and my body, roused from its habitual sloth, is abuzz with vitality and joy.

I’m on a natural high and my back pain has gone. Will I keep it up? With results this good, I may well stretch to it.

Moving Stretch therapy (movingstretch.com) with Suzanne at triyoga.co.uk