Not good about stretching? Now we have more than a coach telling us to stretch; we have one hands-on helping us to stretch. StretchLab (stretchlab.com) throws open its doors in Harbor Point, and its Flexologists (a term they trademarked) make stretching more productive and fun.
You work one on one with a Flexologist in a personalized session. A twenty-five-minute stretch concentrates on your priority needs, and a fifty-minute session works you head to toe and all of your major muscle groups. Sessions are designed to increase mobility and flexibility, help reduce pain, decrease muscle aches, improve posture, reduce recovery time and enhance quality of life. If you like it, you can take out a membership for four or eight times a month or just keep doing single stretches.
THE TEAM
StretchLab Stamford is owned by KHR, which operates six other locations in Fairfield County and Westchester. It has the three original owners—Adam Kanzer, Andy Hicks and Dawn Rinaldi, who operated studios on their own prior to Covid. When they merged into one company, they brought into the group district managers Kacie Skidd and Kari Woodward. This is their first studio as newly formed KHR. “I wanted the chance to do something that would utilize different skill sets from my other occupation as an advertising creative,” says Adam Kanzer, “and I simply believed in the power of what assisted stretching can do. It’s one of those things where once you get a good assisted stretch you think, How could I not get this every week?”
Kanzer says StretchLab Flexologists come from a variety of backgrounds, including personal training, massage therapy and yoga. “You spend an hour with them and you immediately feel the difference in your flexibility, range of motion, mobility. Every time I finish a session with them, personally, my body feels ten years younger.”
LOCATION, LOCATION
“We had our eye on Stamford since we all opened up our first studios three years ago,” says Kanzer. “It’s such a diverse and vibrant city that seems to be undergoing such a rapid transition; we knew it was going to be our first expansion destination. We think the Harbor Point area specifically has so much potential. It’s just a fun, lively place to be. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a few years.”
Assisted stretching is one of those things that you can describe all you want, but you really have to hop on a bench and experience it to see just how beneficial it can be to so many aspects of your daily life.
—co-owner Adam Kanzer
StretchLab offers a $59, fifty-minute intro stretch for first-time visitors and four-month and eight-month membership packs.