Tru-Stride™ was created by Dr. Jonathan Gastel, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist with 28 years of experience, including decades serving as the team orthopedic consultant for Division I and Division III collegiate programs, a national championship hockey program, as well as hands-on work in NFL training rooms and professional hockey organizations.

An athlete himself, he continues to compete in ice hockey, take on challenging backpacking expeditions, and enjoy paddleboarding and pickleball.

Seeking a way to maintain his own strength and performance edge alongside younger athletes, he set out to design a lateral strength and power conditioning device that could be used daily at home. His goal was clear — to build a challenging, low-impact training system that mimics true athletic movement while targeting the critical hip abductors, glutes, and quadriceps muscles often neglected in traditional gym workouts. Finding no such device available at his gym or at collegiate or professional facilities, he spent the next three years developing and refining Tru-Stride to fill that void.

As an orthopedic surgeon, he insisted on a design that could deliver high-intensity training with minimal joint stress, reducing the risk of overuse injuries often seen with many poorly engineered fitness products.

After extensive prototype testing and collaboration with collegiate athletes, physical therapy centers, and sports training rooms, the final Tru-Stride fitness system was born.

A proud Rhode Islander, he sourced all materials, manufacturing, finishing, and shipping operations within his home state.

Today, as he competes with athletes less than half his age, he shares Tru-Stride with others — including athletes of all levels, fitness and cross-training enthusiasts, and rehabilitation patients — so they too can experience this unique, low-impact, high-performance training system.