Stretch Therapy™ and microStretching® have been a journey that has been part of over half of my life. Reflecting on the many paths that I have walked and continue to walk, several sentences from Mary Oliver’s poem The Journey often echo within me as I continue on this quest…
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting their bad advice…
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world…
The video below is but a small testament to the many milestones that have come to define the History of Stretch Therapy™ and microStretching®.
As a sports scientist I am very interested in the proper recovery, regeneration, rehabilitation, restoration, and adaptation of the body to exercise stress, trauma, and injury. This passion was responsible for the origin, and development of Stretch Therapy™ and microStretching® in the mid-1980s. I was fortunate from the very beginning to have worked with many Sports Medicine Professionals at the University of British Columbia, Canada who shared and saw the value of what I created and developed.
Over the years I have worked with and continue to work with elite and amateur athletes, as well as sports teams, federations and organizations, and sports medicine physicians and therapists.
After amassing a large amount of anecdotal evidence in my clinic in Vancouver, B.C., Canada (Serapis Stretch Therapy Inc.), I closed my practice and embarked on undertaking a PhD at the University of Wolverhampton (UK). My thesis questioned the qualitative nature of stretching, specifically, the effect of the magnitude and variability of the force generated during stretching, and the nature of the variability and perception (sensation) of the degree of stretch (refer to microStretching® research).
Recognized globally as the pioneer of Stretch Therapy™, I continue to push the boundary of the use of low-intensity gentle stretching to address issues associated with inflammation and the inflammatory response, in the pursuit of the proper recovery, regeneration, and adaptation of the body