How much does Stretch Minute cost?
Stretch Minute is affordably priced at only $14.95 for the download only version.
Are the exercises hard?
The exercises have been designed to be simple and easy, and anyone with an average level of fitness should have no trouble with them. That said, if you're inflexible or have suffered an injury, you might find some of the stretches more challenging. We strongly recommend that you check with your doctor before you start any new program of exercise, even one as mild as Stretch Minute. For your convenience, we have a printable Exercise Checklist for you to take to your doctor so they can review it with you.
What are "microbreaks" and why should I take them?
A microbreak is a brief pause taken at your computer. It can last from a few seconds up to a minute. It is an opportunity to change position and relax areas of your body that are fatigued. Dr. Cathy Cummins, a Portland, OR chiropractor and instructor at Western States Chiropractic College, says that taking a break to change posture at least once an hour is the most effective single thing a person can do to reduce back and neck problems.
The Reminder in Stretch Minute displays every 45 minutes with the default message "Check Your "Posture." You can easily change how often the Reminder appears and what the message says.
Will Stretch Minute help me be more productive?
Yes. A 1999 study at Cornell University found that workers who regularly checked their posture, took short breaks, and stretched during the work day were on average 13% more accurate in their work than colleagues who did not. Individuals who typed the most showed the most improvement - up to 40% more accurate. The study says "This improvement in work accuracy reflects an overall 1 percent jump in the workers' total productivity during the five-week test period."
Why do you use videos to demonstrate the exercises rather than drawings or animation?
It's been clinically proven that people learn an exercise much better when they're shown how to do the exercise by another person. There was a study done that compared how correctly people did an exercise when they learned it from an exercise sheet with drawings, versus how well they did it when taught by a physical therapist.
There was no comparison - most of the people who learned the exercise off the printed sheet were doing it wrong! This can reduce the benefit of the exercise and even lead to injury. The people who had hands-on instruction, on the other hand, performed the exercise correctly more than 90% of the time. Video is the closest we can get on the computer to having a person right there showing you how to do the exercises, so you can get the maximum benefit for your effort.
Why was Stretch Minute written?
The CEO of Wolf in the Moon Software, Katherine Wolfe, suffered a painful back injury and surgery in January, 1992. As part of her recovery program, she was prescribed exercises and stretches to do at the computer. But, she found, it was difficult to remember to do the exercises, and hard to understand how to do them from the printed sheet she'd been given by the doctor. So, being a software engineer with over 20 years of experience programming computers, she naturally chose to solve both problems with a piece of software. What worked for her worked for others, and over time her desire to help people led to the production of Stretch Minute.