Photo: WeStretch Facebook page.

By Shane Clausing

Community

Local app developer launches “WeStretch” with goal of getting more people moving

Apr 13, 2022 | 10:14 AM

An app developer from Grande Prairie has her sights set on getting more people in our community and around the world up and active.

Karen Willsey recently launched a free app called “WeStretch” on application download platforms throughout the world.

Willsey tells EverythingGP she got inspired to build the WeStretch app after she noticed she wasn’t doing enough stretching and moving on a daily basis.

“We built it because I kept getting out of the bed every morning and going, ‘yoga’ because my joints would crack, and I would be stiff. I am a retired gymnast and I was hurting. I knew I needed to do it (stretch), but I just wasn’t doing it,” she explained.

Willsey has a computer science background and decided to organize the app like a computer geek would organize it. This meant trying to make the app as interactive and easy to use as possible.

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In order to build the app, Willsey mentioned she partnered up with a local physiotherapist to help make over 6,000 exercises for people to try out.

“We partnered with a physiotherapist in town named Brian Sherk and he has a passion for the science behind stretching,” she said.

“When I said I was building a stretching app, he said he was all in. We decided to narrow it down and took each major joint and analyzed all the directions it could go.”

The app has various levels of stretching starting from stretches for beginners and going all the way up to what the app calls “ninja level.”

“No direction of movement gets left behind.”

The free portion of the app allows users to access several basic free exercises. Users can pay a premium price which will allow them to access more exercises and movements.

Willsey hopes the app can help people get healthier and keep them moving.

“What would Grande Prairie look like if everybody stretched? Less pain, more mobility, seniors could get off the floor, their freedom and quality of life could be improved by stretching.”

To date, the app has over 10,000 downloads from around the world.