Press

Originally published in The Saratogian

Anyone looking to increase their mobility and muscle function has a new place to check out in Clifton Park.

John Bladek celebrated the grand opening of his business Stretch Zone this past week.

To mark the grand opening of Stretch Zone’s new Clifton Park location, Bladek hosted a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony at Stretch Zone located at 54 Crossing Blvd in the town of Clifton Park. Friends and family of Bladek as well as various leaders from across the capital region and even the CEO of Stretch Zone, Tony Zaccario, all gathered at Stretch Zone to celebrate and congratulate Bladek.

Stretch Zone is a franchise based in South Florida with its first business opening in 2015 and becoming a franchise in 2017. Stretch Zone is practitioner-assisted stretching that uses the patented Stretch Zone Stabilization System which is used to aid in increased mobility and muscle function. Stretch Zone can be used by anyone from athletes to people who are stuck working at a desk all day.

The CEO of Stretch Zone, Tony Zaccario, flew up to the Capital Region from South Florida to offer his congratulations to Bladek.

The owner of the Stretch Zone in Clifton Park, Bladek, explained what Stretch Zone was all about and how it helps people. Bladek said, “The entire point and purpose of Stretch Zone is to help people do the things that they love and regain some of the things they have lost over time. We do a lot of posture work, we see a lot of athletes who are just trying to maintain and be at the top of their game or get to the top of their game.

“We see a lot of your regular Joes. We work with your weekend warriors, your nine-to-fivers, your posture problems, the kind of people who know that they should go to the gym, but when they get out of work, they just don’t feel like it because they’re already sore from sitting or working all day long. We do see some serious stuff, we do work with people who are getting out of physical therapy, we work with hip replacements, knee replacement, spinal fusions. We even work with conditions like MS, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s. So really, there is no one singular point that we are trying to accomplish, it’s about living your life the way that you want to without having to worry about some of the limitations that some people go through every day with.”

When asked why he wanted to have his own Stretch Zone, Bladek explained, “I actually started with Stretch Zone as an entry-level employee, a practitioner offering our services. It was honestly a job that I took to keep the lights on, I didn’t know what it was and over the first couple weeks, I just fell in love with the product that we offer. I fell in love with working with the people, the relationships that I built with them and seeing them get better over time just working with me and doing what we do. From there, I stepped into management and I took a big step into teaching certifications for the company so I traveled around and met franchise owners who were doing exactly what I’m doing now and I just decided that it was such a great opportunity. Not only that, I grew up here.”

Bladek was congratulated by leaders from the Capital Region Chamber at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening, as well as a representative from the office of Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, Clifton Park’s Town Supervisor Phil Barrett, and State. Sen. James Tedisco.

Learn more about Stretch Zone Clifton Park!