After a severe motorcycle accident left Dr. Jason Wersland in constant pain, he was desperate for a solution. He experimented with countless treatments and seemed to exhaust every possibility on the market, but nothing seemed to work. Exasperated, he decided to create his own device to provide muscle relief. The tool worked better than he could have ever imagined, and he decided to share it with others. Now, through his brand Therabody, Dr. Wersland helps others enhance their well-being.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Wersland about health, wellness, and his experience building his company. Here’s what he had to share with the Thrive Global community.
How did creating Therabody help you find meaning and purpose in your work?
When I first created Theragun, it was completely selfish — I invented it to treat myself. I was the first patient using this product to address my pain and then my rehab needs and eventually in my daily routine, from waking up to working out. I eventually took the Theragun to my clinic and started using it on my clients. I was able to see some drastic changes and the effect this new modality had on the everyday person. It grew inside my office and became a requested treatment by nearly every patient. In 2012, I started using Theragun on athletes and discovered it’s performance enhancing effects and how much these professional athletes loved using Theragun. The demand for Theragun really started to take off in 2013.
Through the years this product has helped me connect with my patients and more importantly, as I shared the product with my patients, this facilitated a deeper connection my patients had with their own bodies — that is my purpose. Our true desire is to relieve your pain and decrease the tension in your body. That is truly what we all come to work to do, every day and it’s what keeps us inspired to grow our portfolio of natural product solutions. Everyone can benefit from using a Theragun and the Therabody echo system.
Why do you think that improving your physical well-being benefits your mental and emotional well-being?
There is little doubt that physical health affects our mental states and vice versa. Debilitating pain can lead to depression and can prevent us from partaking in many of the joys of life. Anxiety can lead to muscle tension and can drain our energy, even when we are not subconsciously aware. If we can take care of ourselves physically, we can perhaps ease many of the burdens that come with mental health issues. Exercise can help us ensure our bodies are producing the right levels of hormones that help regulate our mental states.
A part of our mission at Therabody is to help people reconnect with their bodies. Our Theragun devices and TheraOne CBD literally put recovery and tension relief in the hands of those who use it. We’ve had many folks write into us how they have been able to reclaim their lives using Theragun.
Why is it important for people to take ownership over their own health and body? Why is it important that people have natural solutions for their daily wellness needs?
One of the main reasons I created Theragun is because I couldn’t get treated everyday for multiple hours a day — I needed a solution I could use on myself between appointments. The accessibility is what helped me heal, and what has helped many Theragun customers heal as a compliment to professional care. We only have one body, and we need to take care of it ourselves, we can’t rely on others to do that. Our Theragun devices and TheraOne CBD are accessible resources for people to take ownership of their own health and body.
Through your Therabody app and your podcast, you work to educate communities on health and wellness. In your eyes, why is educating people about health and wellness so important?
My philosophy is not to just “feed” you a product but to “teach a man to fish” and education has always been fundamental for us in helping users get the most from their Theragun (and now TheraOne products), and the new Therabody app has been created to put the power in your hands. Theragun University expands on that and allows us to offer more personalized education to professionals such as trainers, physical therapists, and massage therapists. As we conduct more research and have studies published, it is important for us to share those findings and properly educate our community on the many applications and benefits of our products.
Our podcast, What Moves You, is meant to be educational on a more global scale, beyond just Therabody. I am passionate about wellness and am dedicated to constantly evolving science, research and my own education around the subject, and a huge part of that is learning from other’s experiences.