StretchLab, White Plains
Stretching is a typical part of the process to prepare for athletic activities.
At StretchLab stretching is the specialty.
Rye resident Dawn Rinaldi, and her husband, Lincoln Briggs, are co-owners of the StretchLab franchise, which opened in White Plains on March 14.
The couple is planning to open a second location in Mount Kisco in May. The White Plains location is the first business the couple has co-owned.
“We provide one-on-one assisted stretching,” Rinaldi said last week. “It’s something you won’t be able to do yourself.”
“Living long is one of our mottos,” Rinaldi said.
StretchLab offers 25- and 50-minute sessions which are done out in the open. “We are doing that on purpose. We don’t want the sheets and the closed doors. We want to really build a sense of community here, where people feel welcome, people of all sizes and shapes,” Rinaldi explained.
Assisted stretching is considered to be wellness “or a supplement to fitness,” Rinaldi said. “For instance, we’ll be in Orangetheory (a nearby fitness center) a lot. They’ll host us there. And they don’t even look at us as competition because we’re bringing a different clientele.”
The new business also brings its services to local businesses and holds private functions such as bridal showers.
Males and females, youths and adults are the StretchLab clients, Rinaldi said. Teenagers, for example, come to StretchLab to improve their range of motion for sports, dancing and gymnastics.
“Really what you’re doing here is increasing your range of motion, flexibility and mobility,” Rinaldi said. “We’re not medical. So if you’re acute we will tell you to get a doctor’s note. But we are seeing physical therapists actually referring people here after they’re done with their treatment.”
Stretch is becoming more popular, Rinaldi said. “Stretch is becoming the buzzword of 2019.” “We’re all talking about recovery now. And the reason why is because we have all of these high intensity workouts that have become the hip workouts.”
Rinaldi said people who participate in the high intensity workouts are injuring themselves “and they are paying lip service to recovery.”
“This is really front and center of what you can do without sweating, without changing,” Rinaldi said.
Her employees include personal trainers, massage therapists and former chiropractors. “People who work here really care about people. They really want to work with people one-on-one,” she said.
“StretchLab brings to the ordinary population something that pro athletes have been doing all the time,” Rinaldi said. “Tom Brady and Lebron James have their own personal stretchers.”
StretchLab is located at 147 E. Post Rd. in White Plains. For more information call 914-413-0222, send an e-mail to dawn.rinaldi@stretchlab.com or visit https://local.stretchlab.com/location/whiteplains.
