Treat Yourself in the New Year at The Stretch Garden in Aquebogue

Give the phrase “New year, new me” some meaning by flexing out any worries or stresses at The Stretch Garden in Aquebogue in 2025.

Founded and operated by mother and son duo Carissa and Nick Kretchmer, The Stretch Garden takes the concept of stretching to a new level, operating a facility off of Main Road that both captures the essence of the North Fork and offers all kinds of unique ways to stretch.

“I have a biology degree and secondary education degree, and I was working as a personal trainer for a long time, and for about 10 years, and I was just really done,” Carissa Kretchmer said. “I wrote a couple of books, and I was a holistic nutrition counselor, and when I came into stretching, there was a place that opened near me, and I was like, ‘Oh, you know what, I’m done eating people up. I’m gonna start healing them.’”

Carissa got certified and began working for other stretch facilities. Nick has always been fitness-oriented, the Kretchmers say, and joining this was a natural fit for him. He had worked as a lifeguard before working at other stretch studios, building up clientele that have now become customers at The Stretch Garden.

The Stretch Garden opened in November, but the idea was born in the winter.

“We were in Colorado skiing,” Nick said. “I’ve been skiing my whole life, but I said ‘I’ve gotta try snowboarding.’ And I did, and it was awesome, but I was sore everywhere; my back, my arms, my neck, everything. My mom put two ottomans together, and did a stretch on me. After that, we were sitting with coffee and tea by the fire, and thought, ‘We really should do something like this.’”

The Kretchmers then started doing research on what could best suit their stretch facility, and then chose a location. They are from Huntington, but like many up-islanders, spent summers on the North Fork, and looked at several locations before settling on Aquebogue. To help embody the relaxing, North Fork spirit of the location, the place is decorated with driftwood from North Shore beaches.

But in addition to loving the North Fork, it was also a matter of striking while the iron was hot, the Kretchmers say, with the area becoming more popular every year.

“We wanted to be first,” Carissa said. “We have this great idea. We wanted to stand out a little.”

The amenities at The Stretch Garden include a decorated lobby with a lounge chair where you can sit and drink tea, a 40-degree cold plunge, a sauna with red light therapy, a zero gravity chair also with light therapy, a full stretch room, and a salt room with lounge chairs and weighted blankets, and salt in the air.

“The salt generator blows these super fine grains of salt into the broom, and you just inhale it,” Nick said. “It’s really passive. It’s super nice. Helps on the skin. You may taste it a little bit, may get a little bit salty in the air, but that’s just for a moment. It gets into the cavities of your lungs, those tiny little cavities, and it just melts away all those mucus and the gunk in there.”

The state-of-the-art cold plunge compliments the sauna, with many clients spending a minute or so in the cold plunge before going into the sauna, the temperature change encouraging an endorphin rush. The anti-gravity chair reads your heart rate and gives massages accordingly from your neck down to your feet, coupled with additional full spectrum light therapy in the room. And the salt room encourages total relaxation with the weighted blankets and a cleaning of your lungs.

It’s all preventative and proactive health measures, according to the Kretchmers; muscular, cardiovascular, mental health, and more.

“We have meditation pillows in the salt room, and these are weighted blankets, so people like to get under them and just completely zone out,” Carissa said. “So some people are doing a stretch and then, and because they’re so relaxed after their stretch, they don’t want to just leave. So that’s part of what inspired this salt room.”

The building is shared with an acupuncturist, and Carissa added that they have an overlap in clientele.

Business has been booming since their grand opening, with a lot of the business coming on Friday nights as people are looking to decompress after the work week.

“We have memberships and we have packages,” Carissa said. “But I think what’s really important is that if you have any sort of interest in it, just come. Try it out. We are so different from any other stretch therapy you can find.”

The Stretch Garden is located at 189 Main Road in Aquebogue and can be reached at 631-502-0001 or thestretchgarden.com.