What is Operation Human First?

Operation Human First is a training and education platform built to help you rebuild how your body moves—and recalibrate the systems that determine how well it adapts, recovers, and performs.

Kinstretch is a core component. But OHF is not a single method or modality. It is an integrated human movement and education ecosystem designed to help you understand your body and nervous system as a whole—so you can stop guessing and start moving forward with improved clarity.

At a Surface Level…

OHF is designed to help you:

• Improve how your body moves and feels day to day

• Regain a sense of control over how your body evolves with time

• Improve joint health, tissue capacity, neurological control, strength, mobility, flexibility, and resilience

But that’s only the superficial layer.

Your Body Is a System

Your body does not exist in isolated parts—it functions as an interconnected system.

OHF exists to help fill the gap in an industry and system that is busy looking at the body through pigeon holes rather than as an interconnected system.

Doing so allows people to stop “spinning their tires”, finally connect the dots, & take steps towards thriving physically.

What does the name Operation Human First mean?

Four years ago, I changed the name from Kinstretch with Alex to Operation Human First. This wasn’t a rebrand—it was a realignment with what the platform had become.

Yes, Kinstretch remains a core component. But OHF has grown and evolved well beyond Kinstretch alone.

“Human First” reflects the belief that we are humans before we are clients, diagnoses, or data points.

On a physical level, modern life is stripping many of us of fundamental human qualities, including:

• Joint function & useable range of motion

• Tissue capacity & quality

• Neurological control & body awareness

• The ability to breathe, walk, run, and move in ways that our bodies were built for

OHF exists to help you restore what’s been lost in modern life and healthcare/education systems that are operating in silos.

Humans, Not Customers

You’re not just a customer in Operation Human First. You’re a human and a part of the tribe.

Humans used to travel in tribes and learn from each other. OHF is my way of ensuring that anyone in my tribe benefits from my own education and experiences.

When you join OHF you join a tribe where every single human matters.

The Human Behind Operation Human First:

That would be me - Alex Murphy.

I care deeply about helping others improve their health. As humans, we only get one body and once chance at life - and I want to help people thrive physically so they can live long and fulfilling lives.

While my physical therapy schedule almost always has me booked out months in advance, the pandemic gifted me the time and space I needed to finally sit down and create what my non-local community had been constantly requesting - an online Kinstretch platform where they could keep using my classes.

I’ve now been operating OHF for the better part of a decade and I’m so grateful to every human that requested this as it has allowed me to connect with so many incredible people and I’m honored to be a part of each person’s journey.

Beyond being a practitioner, Kinstretch instructor, and physical therapist, I'm also a human with decades of first-hand experience with how easy it is to fall between the cracks in the healthcare system when we look at the human body through silos or pigeon holes.

I experienced my first concussion at age 4 and had 14 thereafter, which led to a series of health conditions that nobody could figure out that I had to piece together myself. I flew myself around the world wherever I could self-refer for tests. As I suspected, I discovered that I have Chiari syndrome, which is a condition that causes compression of your brain and brain stem due to trauma to the head and neck. For years, this caused unexplained muscle tightness and joint pain that even the best practitioners in the world couldn't piece together.

I’ve been using the strategies and frameworks that I share in the courses within Operation Human First to address my own condition.

These days, you’ll find me at my physical therapy clinic in Canada, filming classes for OHF, training, running experiments on my own body, and answering your messages. Beyond that, I am just living life, chasing sunsets, and hunting for lattes.

Background & Education

My first job in the human performance and rehabilitation space was in 2013 where I trained University athletes and general public in the Human Performance Center at my local University.

Since then I’ve accumulated over a decade of experience working with clients to help them improve how well they move and feel every day.

I operate my own physical therapy clinic in Canada where I have my Kinstretch studio and I have nearly a decade of experience running my own practice as a physical therapist, Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist, and Kinstretch instructor.

University Degrees:

• Physical Therapy & Kinesiology - University of Saskatchewan

Relevant Post-Graduate Education:

• Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist - FRCms

• Kinstretch Instructor - FRS

• Functional Range Systems Internal Strength Model FRSC

• Functional Range Assessment - FRAs

• Functional Range Release Practitioner - FR

• Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology: CSEP-CPT

• Postural Restoration Institute Certifications:

  • Postural Respiration

  • Myokinematic Restoration

  • Pelvic Restoration

  • Impingement & Instability

  • Cervical Revolution
    

Remember, certifications and degrees are simply expensive pieces of paper. It’s what you DO with those things that makes them valuable. And, that is what you’ll see in OHF.

If you want to know the details about my background, just contact me.

Yours in strength,

Alex