HIGHLAND PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - This week’s Made in Chicago takes a look at StretchWerks, a north suburban business that aims to get people moving better.
Marc Neuman and Joe Faber were personal trainers looking for better ways to help their clients recover when they learned about fascia stretch therapy.
“We lengthen the tissue, we decompress the joints to ultimately create space to help facilitate better movement,” said Faber.
They tried the technique and had great success.
“Most of our clients didn’t want to work out anymore,” Neuman said. “They just wanted to get stretched and get worked on, because they were feeling better. They saw instantaneous results, where sometimes working out, it obviously takes a little bit of time to see…any kind of change.”
They opened a space in the Crossroads Shopping Center in Highland Park.
“We did it with perfect timing, right before the pandemic. We opened February of 2020,” Neuman said sarcastically.
After a brief pandemic pause, they reopened and eventually expanded to Vernon Hills. The Highland Park space has a spa-like feel , with five private treatment rooms along a quiet corridor.
“We’ve got the Noramtec boots. We’ve got the percussion therapy. We’ve got the heat and vibration technology,” noted Neuman.
Faber said the manual stretching does more than help people recover from injury.
“[It’s a] huge stress reliever…We’re always trying to downregulate people’s nervous systems,” Faber said. As we know, everybody is amped up throughout the day with work and kids and school and whatever. And, this work, this fascia stretch therapy really helps to calm the nervous system.”
They see athletes of all ages and former clients of chiropractors or massage therapists.
“Golfers are our number one target market, no question,” Faber said. “This is the start of our busy season.”
StretchWerks, helping people get relief from what aches them, and it’s Made in Chicago.
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