A personal stretching device is used to move a user's torso toward a distal structure. The personal stretching device includes an elongated tensile member, a shiftable uptake, and a manually-powered drive mechanism. The shiftable uptake is attached to the elongated tensile member at a proximal location, with the uptake operable to move along the elongated tensile member to change an adjustable length dimension defined between the proximal location and the distal structure. The manually-powered drive mechanism is operable to drive the uptake and thereby move the uptake along the tensile member. The drive mechanism includes a driven element attached to the uptake and a pair of drive elements shiftably mounted relative to the uptake. Each of the drive elements is drivingly coupled to the driven element independent of the other of the drive elements so that the user can drive the uptake by powering either one of the drive elements and thereby change the adjustable length dimension.