Photo courtesy of Stretch Zone.
Danielle Merrill, a practitioner at Stretch Zone in Mountain Brook, stretches Gage Smith, the general manager, at the new location in Crestline Village.
When Paul Powell was 45, he took a long drive from his home in Dothan to south Florida, and by the time he got there, his back was aching.
Seven years before that, he’d bulged a disk in his back and later had surgery. But the procedure hadn’t solved his issues.
So on that road trip to Florida, he ended up visiting a Stretch Zone location.
“It was amazing the relief I felt after being stretched,” Powell said.
Stretch Zone uses a process called practitioner-assisted stretching, with a patented strapping system that helps clients stay stabilized and relaxed on the table while the practitioners do all the work.
“The techniques, the process, the way they’re able to isolate muscles — I was just amazed,” Powell said.
He went back to Dothan thinking help like that was only available in really big cities. Then five years later, the day after he sold his business and retired, he got a surprise.
“I had planned to take a year off before doing anything new, but the day I retired, I went to Publix, and they were opening a Stretch Zone next to it,” he said. “I saw the sign and smiled, and I thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m not taking a year off after all.’”
That was a Friday — Dec. 3, 2021. On Monday, Powell had a membership at his local Stretch Zone, and on Tuesday he was talking to the franchising group.
And this summer, he opened his fifth Stretch Zone studio location at 229 Country Club Park in Mountain Brook.
“It’s easy to get behind because it’s great to help people,” Powell said. “Stretch Zone is for anybody who wants to have more energy or feel a little younger, or who wants relief from chronic pain or discomfort, lower back pain, shoulder pain or hip pain.”
He said their mission is to help people “stay active and live life on their terms.”
Their patients range from young athletes who want to lower their risk for injury to older patients whose bodies might be tightening up.
For the athletes, “if you make a quick movement or you’re on the bottom of the pile, you have more of a chance of getting hurt if you’re not flexible,” Powell said. “The more flexibility, the less risk.”
For older patients, treatment at Stretch Zone is about giving the joints room to breathe by elongating the muscle.
“As we get older, our muscles get tighter and cause chronic discomfort in our joints,” Powell said. “We help people get rid of that discomfort.”
Flexibility is the key to a more active and pain-free life, he said, and the first visit to Stretch Zone is complimentary.
“We want to understand your goals, so we ask you to tell us about your body and what your dream state would be,” Powell said. “From there, we go through a number of stretches around the areas important to you.”
He said he and his colleagues believe the process sells itself, and the social proof is there, too — his other locations have had hundreds of five-star reviews, despite only being open a short time.
“If you want to continue to come back after that first visit, we can find a membership that fits you,” he said. “Give it a try, because it works.”
For more information, call 205-803-6729, visit stretchzone.com or follow them on Instagram @sz.mountainbrook or on Stretch Zone Mountain Brook’s Facebook page.
