About the inventor

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John R. Martinez, D.P.T., did not set out to invent a new exercise device. He set out to understand how the human body truly works — and why some of the tools meant to help actually fall short.

Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dr. Martinez was a state champion tennis player and a standout basketball athlete. Competitive sports brought several injuries, and those sport-related setbacks introduced him early to physical therapy. What stood out to him wasn’t just the treatment — it was the intelligent problem-solving of the clinicians who helped him recover.

That experience planted the seed.

At Swarthmore College, where he degreed in psychology while earning his teaching certification, his thinking fundamentally changed. A varsity tennis player later inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame as part of a National Champion Team — and a freshman-year basketball player — he credits Swarthmore with teaching HOW to think rather than what to think.

“It changed my life. It taught me to be a critical thinker.”

That mindset would later define both his clinical practice and his approach to innovation.

Dr. Martinez earned his Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia), which at the time was the highest degree available in the profession. Driven by a growing interest in exercise science, he also became a certified personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise (A.C.E.).

Early in his career, he worked alongside dynamically intelligent physical therapists who challenged him to think through movement problems both functionally and academically. Rehabilitation was not just about anatomy — it was about context, adaptability, and real human movement.

A few months after 9/11, Dr. Martinez relocated to New York City and rebuilt a physical therapy practice from two sites in Manhattan into a national presence with eleven sites across six states, serving major corporations throughout the United States.

During this time, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Exercise and became President of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Greater New York Regional Chapter.

Despite professional leadership and national growth, one simple clinical frustration persisted.

In clinics, gyms, and corporate wellness programs, he repeatedly watched patients and exercise clients struggle with resistance bands. The bands slipped. People wrapped them around their hands multiple times to maintain control. Exercises were interrupted.

The same question came up again and again:

“Why can’t I always have handles when I use these things?”

As a clinician who believes tools should adapt to people — not the other way around — he could not ignore it.

Dr. Martinez eventually shifted back to private practice, founding Physical Therapy Experts, to focus again on individualized, one-on-one care. He works with patients recovering from injury, managing chronic conditions, and maintaining strength and mobility into later years of life.

During this period, while running his practice full time, he returned to school to earn his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at Temple University after the doctoral degree became an option within the profession.

It was in the daily reality of patient care — not in a laboratory — that the solution emerged.

Retract-A-Band™ is a newly patented, hand-held elastic resistance device with integrated handles and an internal retraction system that allows users to adjust band length and resistance seamlessly.

It was designed from decades of clinical observation, not from theory.

Dr. Martinez does not describe himself as an inventor first.

He describes himself as a clinician who never stops paying attention.