Simpler stretched legs

Mary Ann Malizia noticed that her patients were not stretching their hamstrings properly. People would cheat by bending their knee or pointing their toes.

Malizia, a Rockville Centre resident, works at Nassau BOCES, where she helps disabled children with various disorders — including tied hamstrings. Working with engineers, she developed the Progressive Leg Stretcher, which holds a patient’s leg in the proper hamstring stretch.

“My competition has straps or big units,” said Malizia. “There’s nothing portable or lightweight.”

And 18 months since that initial idea, she has the first version of a product — a transportable, motorized device that lifts legs and keeps the foot in a neutral position. With the device holding the stretch, clients can look at their phones, which will make them hold the stretch longer. “It also has a timer on it so you hold the stretch for the right amount of time,” Malizia said.

Right now, she rented out 10 prototypes to physical therapists in Bay Shore and Baldwin, and the United Soccer Centre in Ontario, Canada. “I’ve gotten very good feedback,” Malizia said. “They save a lot of time… It saves them strain on their neck and shoulders because people aren’t pressing down [using their] neck and shoulders.”

She also received two grants, which she is using to have Stony Brook University streamline the design and make the Progressive Leg Stretcher easier to use.

She’s also speaking to two distributors, Henry Schein and Meyer Physical Therapy, and is planning to have the final version of the leg stretcher ready for Jan. 1.

Malizia lives with her husband, Joe, who is the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math director at Carle Place High School. They have four children — Blake, who coaches junior varsity football at South Side High School, Kayleen, a senior at the University of Maryland, Joey, an accountant, and the youngest, Peter, a senior at SSHS.