Robin [00:00:00]:
We have one of our national, the football team. Ottawa football team. The player, his first exhibition range broke his ankle and he comes into us and he gets on the treadmills. At this point, the team didn't have an underwater treadmill.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:16]:
Right.
Robin [00:00:16]:
They hadn't, they, they bought it afterwards, but we had it. So he came in and he was doing the carry, carry O. Healing, the turns.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:23]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Robin [00:00:24]:
And he was blown away because no way, no way could he have done that on land.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:28]:
Right.
Robin [00:00:28]:
But now he's been able to do that and keep up his ability to keep going and improve faster.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:34]:
Now, I know this is going to sound strange or maybe it's going to sound like a silly question, but my mom says that she cannot do aquatic therapy and here's her reason why.
Robin [00:00:46]:
Okay.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:46]:
Or hydrotherapy. She doesn't know how to swim.
Robin [00:00:50]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:51]:
Do you get that from people?
Robin [00:00:52]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:00:53]:
So what do you tell the non swimmers?
Robin [00:01:00]:
This is Secrets for Success.
Irene Hammerich [00:01:04]:
Welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast. I'm your host, Greg Todd. Thank you as always for joining me. I have some special guests back for the second time and what we're going to do today is we're going to do, I call it the R F V. So it's rapid fire of values. So hear me out. I bring value to my audience. My audience brings value to whoever it is that you're working with.
Irene Hammerich [00:01:27]:
So I would like. Well, first of all, Irene, Karen, welcome back to the podcast. They are from Liquid Gym.
Robin [00:01:37]:
Right.
Irene Hammerich [00:01:38]:
So can you all tell us a little bit about Liquid Gym and who it is that you all bring value to in a marketplace?
Greg [00:01:45]:
Oh, okay.
Robin [00:01:46]:
Liquid Gym is a hydrotherapy clinic. Well, we opened it as a hydrotherapy clinic in 2007. 2013. Sorry, 2013. And we opened it because of a hockey accident that I had. I broke my leg and I didn't. I found regular physiotherapy land, as I call it. Land therapy wasn't going so well.
Robin [00:02:06]:
So we ended up actually in the States finding these underwater treadmills, underwater bikes, and we decided to open up an actual clinic specializing in hydrotherapy from that point in 2013. We actually now have specialized land equipment also. So who do we service Initially? We were looking at more of the neural based geriatric market when we first started. However, now it's an msk. It's a very general based. We have actually a ped specialist that works with us. So from peds right up to. Actually we just celebrated one of our patients 100th birthday.
Irene Hammerich [00:02:41]:
Wow.
Robin [00:02:41]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:02:42]:
So from Peds to 100?
Robin [00:02:43]:
Yeah. Literally six months to 100.
Irene Hammerich [00:02:47]:
Wow.
Robin [00:02:47]:
Yeah, it's amazing.
Greg [00:02:48]:
So what's interesting, we have a poster that we have around our clinics, and it's. And it's very clearly says sample conditions, and it's a list of about 20 different conditions. And I had a patient say to me, but I have plantar fasciitis, and I don't see it on your list. Do you really treat that?
Robin [00:03:07]:
It is like, yep, good to go. So it's.
Greg [00:03:11]:
And it's what's appropriate for the person.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:13]:
Right.
Greg [00:03:13]:
And it's any condition, any situation, or we've got a really talented team.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:18]:
Okay, well, do you mind if I throw a bunch of questions?
Robin [00:03:21]:
Let's do it. Okay.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:22]:
So I guess the first thing is you said hydrotherapy, so.
Robin [00:03:25]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:26]:
Can we talk about the difference? Water therapy, aquatic or aqua therapy? Hydrotherapy. Is there a difference or is it just synonymous?
Robin [00:03:35]:
Yep. No difference.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:35]:
No difference.
Robin [00:03:36]:
We just decided. I don't know, we just decided hydrotherapy, that was the. What we were going to go with. That's what we coined. But people do call it hot water therapy. Insurance companies actually very interesting in Ottawa because we didn't use the word water therapy, and we had hydrotherapy. We had insurance companies and weren't paying because it. Well, that's hydrotherapy.
Robin [00:03:53]:
That's not what, what physiotherapy does. So we, we, we soon fixed that with them. Yeah. Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:03:59]:
Okay, so. So on a whole, why is hydrotherapy so effective?
Robin [00:04:04]:
Okay, so if there's, there's, there's four principles, really. Three is what makes a difference in the water. So if you go in the water and you're the up to here. So for standing water height up to here, 90% of your body weight's eliminated. Okay. So you, on land, say, weigh 100 pounds. On land, you weigh now basically 10 pounds of water. Well, that's one thing.
Robin [00:04:24]:
So, so for movement, if you've lost muscle mass, all of a sudden you're not trying to move £100, you now only have to move £10.
Irene Hammerich [00:04:31]:
Right, gotcha.
Robin [00:04:32]:
The other principle is what's called the high dystropic pressure. So people coming in and they get in the water, this pressure, oftentimes if you have an injury, you have inflammation of the joints, and that impedes the actual movement. Well, as soon as you get into water, it's like a piston in a car. You're getting in and that knee is moving and moving and moving like this. And the fluid that's in there, because of the pressure of the Water that's on that joint or that limb is actually being forced out. I mean, in very simplistic terms. So now when we have patients that come out and say, oh, my knee is. Or my ankle or my hip is so loose, it's not stiffened, it's like, well, that's just what happens when you get in the water.
Irene Hammerich [00:05:09]:
Right.
Robin [00:05:09]:
The other is the actual. It's called dragon resistance. Because water is thicker than air. It actually is 12% harder to move in the water than this on land. So it's kind of an oxymoron because here you are, you, buoyancy. You don't weigh. So anything under here, there's no gravity.
Irene Hammerich [00:05:25]:
90% less weight.
Robin [00:05:26]:
Yeah, exactly. So you have less weight, but it's harder. So, like, okay, well, how does that actually work? You don't have to have as much muscle mass to move because you're lighter, but it's actually having to move harder, but it doesn't feel like it. So when we have the patients coming in for the first time, we have to be cautious, because what can happen, the patient comes in and they feel so free. They can move. They move too much, and then they go home and they're so stiff because they haven't been able to move. So really, that's those three things. I mean, the fourth principle is the heat of the water.
Robin [00:06:01]:
Now, our pools are very warm, but we're at 93 degrees, so it's very warm. So that makes a big difference because just getting in all of a sudden that tense or that stiff or that muscle that's been spastic can now relax. So there's a number of factors to play, a factor into why patients do so well in the water.
Irene Hammerich [00:06:22]:
Gotcha. So you talked about, really, four different factors. What is the. I guess which factor is it that it helps with pain relief in particular?
Robin [00:06:35]:
Well, buoyancy, the boy. Because now, you know, if you can't walk, you have somebody come to give him a walker. And the hip. So they're going for a hip replacement, and their hip is just so sore, they get in the water, walk. Well, now, gravity. So gravity's our worst thing. We want to land. Gravity is what we don't want when somebody's had muscle atrophy because they don't have the muscles to move the body.
Robin [00:06:56]:
But you get them in the water, we don't need that. So definitely, it's. The buoyancy is probably the biggest thing.
Greg [00:07:02]:
And the warmth also really does help as well because of the temperature. So people can relax. That's the one part they're free of gravity and the warmth is just a nice gentle situation. There's natural turbulence in the water, too. So that gets us into the folks who have balance issues. There's folks who. They have range of motion issues. One of our therapists had 15 years in, and she.
Greg [00:07:27]:
She was amazed. She had frozen. Frozen shoulder patient. And the person could barely lift their arm from the side of their body. And in 30 minutes, the arm was floating, actually relaxed up, and she was amazed. And that's the first time she'd ever seen it. So it's. It's a.
Greg [00:07:44]:
It's almost. We've actually been told it's magic water.
Robin [00:07:47]:
It's like.
Greg [00:07:48]:
It's a chlorine pool.
Irene Hammerich [00:07:49]:
It's. Wow. Wow. You guys said that you have all these different things that you help, right?
Robin [00:07:59]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:08:00]:
So let's just. Can we just go do some of them? I'm assuming one of them is chronic conditions. Yes, absolutely.
Robin [00:08:06]:
Chronic.
Irene Hammerich [00:08:06]:
And so when somebody is on the phone and they're like, I have psoriatic arthritis. I've got this, I've got that. What are you telling them on why the water is so effective for them?
Robin [00:08:18]:
What we say is. Well, we actually, when people question, really, will it make a difference? What we say is, just come into the pool, come into the clinic, and we'll take you for a tour. You will not. Like, we can have eight or 10 people in the pool area. It's 3,000 square feet. You can have them in a therapist or maybe in the water with them or on land with them. And they will look around. Everybody's smiling and laughing.
Robin [00:08:41]:
Yeah, right. As soon as they see, well, you're not supposed to have fun at physio, at physiotherapy, you know, there's something wrong here. And so that if we can get them in, we get them in. I do a tour, they sign up right away.
Irene Hammerich [00:08:58]:
Right. Wow.
Greg [00:08:59]:
We've been asked for a statistic recently, and it's because of the business structure itself, and it's how many phone calls do you get in a week, and how many of those do you convert and as new patients? And we're at 95, 98% conversion.
Irene Hammerich [00:09:14]:
Wow.
Greg [00:09:15]:
Which is phenomenal. And it's because of what people come to us for, and that's our niche in our marketplace.
Irene Hammerich [00:09:21]:
Right, Gotcha. Okay, so we talked about the chronic conditions.
Robin [00:09:25]:
Right.
Irene Hammerich [00:09:26]:
Do you all deal with sports injuries as well? Yeah. Okay, so what's kind of the gist behind that?
Robin [00:09:33]:
So let's say you've got A runner. It. So if you've got a plyo box on land, are you. Yeah, let's say it's a runner. Actually one of our, our guys was tennis and. Tennis.
Irene Hammerich [00:09:44]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Robin [00:09:45]:
And so he, he came in and we got him in the water and he had, he had a knee injury. We got him in the water and you're just moving, walking and he was running on the treadmill. And then we do. So we have plier boxes in the pool.
Irene Hammerich [00:09:58]:
Right.
Robin [00:09:58]:
So he was jumping, doing explosive jumps.
Irene Hammerich [00:10:00]:
In the pool right there.
Robin [00:10:01]:
And it's like, he's like, I can't do this. You can. Because his weight has been relieved. So we transitioned. So with him he was like, wow. So he was able to what he felt he was able to continue with his therapy in the water and not lose traction.
Irene Hammerich [00:10:19]:
Traction, right. Gotcha, gotcha.
Robin [00:10:21]:
So that was. Yeah. Nasal to work it out.
Greg [00:10:24]:
And just on another when we came down to a user conference here in the States and it was run by one of the companies, they brought in some of the top athletic trainers and the directors of athletic training from the universities and the belief from so many of them were their belief system was if we waited for science to catch up to what we're doing, we're not the world. We won't have athletes on the field. And so for them it was return to sport, return, be game ready, faster. And it's because you also. It's not just the physical, it's the confidence to do what you're doing. And there's an emotional shift when somebody. We saw an LA Lakers player and what he was doing in the water, his shifting, his agility, his movement, his jump shots and watching him and what he could do there. And they said now let's take a note on land.
Greg [00:11:18]:
And away he goes. And he like they shortened up his recovery time.
Robin [00:11:21]:
We have one of their national, the football team, Ottawa football team. The player, his first exhibition brain, he broke his ankle and he comes into us and he gets on the treadmills. At this point the team didn't have an underwater treadmill.
Irene Hammerich [00:11:38]:
Right.
Robin [00:11:38]:
They hadn't. They, they bought it afterwards, but we had it. So he came in and he was doing the carry Karyo healing the turns.
Irene Hammerich [00:11:45]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Robin [00:11:46]:
And he was blown away because no way, no way could he have done that on land.
Irene Hammerich [00:11:50]:
Right.
Robin [00:11:50]:
But now he's been able to do that and keep up his ability to keep going and, and, and improve faster.
Irene Hammerich [00:11:56]:
Now this is going to sound strange or maybe it's going to sound like a Silly question, but my mom says that she cannot do aquatic therapy. And here's her reason why.
Robin [00:12:08]:
Okay.
Irene Hammerich [00:12:08]:
Or hydrotherapy. She doesn't know how to swim.
Robin [00:12:12]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:12:13]:
Do you get that from people?
Greg [00:12:14]:
Yeah.
Robin [00:12:14]:
Yeah.
Irene Hammerich [00:12:15]:
So what do you tell the non swimmers?
Robin [00:12:17]:
Our pool, actually our hunt. I must say this. When we talked about our patient that was 100 years old, she was in the paper, she was a vet, she's a veteran and she turned 100. So it was a big thing.
Greg [00:12:29]:
In her local paper, there was a picture of her.
Robin [00:12:31]:
And it's funny because she talked about. And I go to Liquid Gym and I swim. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, no, she doesn't. So. So anyways, she. So I saw her because we did a big to do. We had a K for and everything when she came in and I was talking to the therapist and I said, well, actually Karen, we do let her swim because our pool is 40 meters. Like we have four pools.
Irene Hammerich [00:12:54]:
Right, right, right.
Robin [00:12:55]:
And one of them. And she said, we actually do let her swim in our pool. I said, okay. No, I really don't. Generally the pools where we have four pools, the different water height. So we have a pool that's like 4ft 4 inches and then another pool that's 5ft 2, another pool that 5ft 6. So each of them so a different height. So as far as we do have a patient that's coming now that is scared of water.
Robin [00:13:19]:
She actually had a traumatic experience and we're working with her. And just her first time in, she just sat on the steps, feeding into the pool. That's as far as she got. But we don't have to know how to swim. In fact, it doesn't matter. We don't even ask that question. Do you know how to swim? It's not on the application.
Greg [00:13:35]:
And the therapists know that through the assessments and through their initial conversations. And there has been fear and that's.
Robin [00:13:43]:
And the therapist goes in, patient goes in. If they need to, they go in. Great with the patient.
Irene Hammerich [00:13:48]:
Gotcha, gotcha. Pool versus land, Right. Will people see results faster if they start in pool? What are you telling people?
Robin [00:14:03]:
Well, first what we tell them, prehab. So let's say they're going for total knee, total hip. Is. We actually say this isn't. I mean, the snow. The stronger we are going in for surgery, the stronger you're going to be when you come out.
Irene Hammerich [00:14:15]:
Right.
Robin [00:14:15]:
So. But if somebody can't. If somebody has a hip that they just can't walk, we get them in for hip because they're going to start building that muscle back up. Definitely. We see the difference. I mean, we've been around 11 years now. We actually see the difference. Getting them to the water now, the timeframe from the hip or the knee or the surgery, whatever it may be, is about.
Robin [00:14:35]:
We're not as quick as you guys as far as getting patients back into the water. When we came down 12 years ago, the hospitals we were working at that we did the conferences with, they'd have bandages and they were like, three days. We were like, mortified. You don't put a patient in with an excision that's open for three days. But that is. So we. Our protocol was 14 days. Generally.
Robin [00:14:55]:
Now we're about 25 days.
Irene Hammerich [00:14:56]:
Okay.
Robin [00:14:57]:
So once the patient. So they go for dry land, the point of surgery up to the 25 day, then they come in with. Because they can move in the water, their rehab is much faster.
Irene Hammerich [00:15:07]:
Gotcha.
Robin [00:15:07]:
Absolutely.
Irene Hammerich [00:15:08]:
Much faster.
Greg [00:15:09]:
And we do transition patients, and they know that it's a transition. So depending on their situation, some have stayed in the water for years, and that's their love, and it's always meeting their goals. And then the ones who are returned to work, returned to sport, returned to play, those ones, they actually realize that if they can build so much more in the water, in muscle structure, range of motion, whatever it is, then they're transitioned to land. And they've also got the confidence. So they've got all of these things already in their body, their body system, saying, hey, it's okay. I'm stronger, I feel better. I can do this now. And gravity.
Greg [00:15:47]:
The therapists are very good at also reintroducing them to gravity as well. And that's another big piece of the puzzle. So what does our world bring us? You know, so gravity, right?
Irene Hammerich [00:15:58]:
Gravity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a constant. So let's talk about building muscle strength. Do you believe that water resistance primarily can do it?
Robin [00:16:08]:
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Strokes and harder. Yeah, it is harder. We actually. With athletes, with anyone, you can come in. And now we have underwater treadmills. And they're running.
Robin [00:16:17]:
And they can do this because pre Covid, we actually had six underwater treadmills lined up. So we have a gym, and people would rent time on the gym, on the treadmills to run. And we rented time by the half hour. And these were like, athletes were coming in or conditioned individuals were coming in. They said, oh, half hour's not long enough. You watch. Half hour was plenty of time. You were burnt.
Irene Hammerich [00:16:40]:
Wow.
Robin [00:16:40]:
You were a half hour workout. And A lot of most, most of our patients coming in, not the gym base, but most of our patients come in. A half hour is plenty of time because you actually are doing that much more and the resistance much more. And it's not just working on walking or whatever because when you're immersed in water and the fluid, your whole body is working. And that's what's so great. It's like your core has to work, your upper body has to work, your legs have to work. When you're doing on land and you're doing, oh, you're doing a lake breast or you know, you're doing something with your. Well, the rest of your body doesn't have to work.
Irene Hammerich [00:17:14]:
Right.
Robin [00:17:14]:
But when you get water, your whole body has to work.
Irene Hammerich [00:17:16]:
Has to work.
Robin [00:17:16]:
Right. So core is a big thing. We really notice that with people, their core, because core is base. If your core is strong, everything else is strong.
Irene Hammerich [00:17:24]:
Right.
Robin [00:17:25]:
And so that's. We've noticed that.
Irene Hammerich [00:17:26]:
Yeah. You talked about that 100 year old patient, which is amazing. Seniors on a whole, do you find that it is. I don't know if this is a freak situation or do you find that this can work for a lot of seniors? And is it safe?
Robin [00:17:46]:
They love it.
Irene Hammerich [00:17:47]:
They love it.
Robin [00:17:47]:
Yeah. Love it. They absolutely. Now interesting. When we first open, we would have. This is kind of funny. Husband and wife would come and the wife, because women always do things first, right? Right. They're more adventurous.
Robin [00:18:00]:
So they come in and oh yeah, I'm going to try this, I'm going to try this. And we got a huge medium when we first opened. Like all the TVs, the paper, we get a lot. So people come, I heard about you. I'm going to try this. So they would come in and about six weeks later, they were like practically running out of the change room. Like, you know, wow, this is amazing. And the smiles and everything.
Robin [00:18:21]:
And then the husband, other guy said that. Do you want a book? Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. And they were. Women come and hip and you're like, what am I missing? Like, they're like, that is so true.
Irene Hammerich [00:18:31]:
That actually happens so much at Arthletics. It's always the lady that comes in first and then after us is like, all right, yeah, I guess I'm gonna start.
Robin [00:18:39]:
She's feeling so good. I gotta try it. Because for the longest time and men's change room wasn't even being used. I'm like, might as well not even have it. But now it's now we're pretty equal now.
Irene Hammerich [00:18:49]:
Okay. Yeah.
Greg [00:18:50]:
And we don't just focus on your ex and I, the older population. We also like our youngest was actually six months. So the pediatrics. And that is again the freedom of movement if you're dealing with your spasticities or if you're dealing with something else. Like the kids who come in with the swat, you know, the broken ankles from hockey, from soccer, from the rugby kids or we've had actually amputee in the water as well. What else have we had? Oh, we've had so many. It's incredible stories. We've had the paras, the quads, everything and completely accessible.
Greg [00:19:26]:
Yeah, we've all lifts.
Robin [00:19:27]:
You have an elevator and then we have full lift into two of our pools. So, you know. Yeah, we're completely.
Irene Hammerich [00:19:33]:
So let me ask you this. You agree with quadriplegic paraplegics. This, that so many different groups of people, athletes, six month old, hundred years old. Is, is there, is there any exercise that is limited based on okay, we can do this on land, but we can't do this in water? Because I know there's so many different types of exercises. But I mean, I mean, I don't know because I don't, I don't.
Greg [00:20:01]:
When I do, when I'm hiring or in doing the initial hiring of the staff of, we have a four, four step process for hiring. And one of the first things that I say to someone coming in is what you do in water is only based on your creativity of what you know you can do on land. How creative are you? And when you look at that and you can say, well, you got a 25 pound weight on land, but we've got these really light looking foamy dumbbells, you know, and people will go, well, that's nothing. And then we say, yeah, until you get in the water and then you actually have to figure out how to move it. So, so there's all the force and exertion, the scientific pieces behind it and then people start to realize some of the values and if you can think about doing it on land, take it to the water. We talk about safety. We have to teach the safety component as well. And you asked the question before and one of my running lines, always with someone, if I'm doing a tour or with the staff is, yeah, if they're going to fall over it, you know the worst thing that could happen to them, their hair's going to get wet.
Irene Hammerich [00:21:05]:
Right? Yeah.
Greg [00:21:06]:
And so fall prevention, there's, that's where you start building that Massive creativity into it. And they start realizing, I think I can do something here.
Irene Hammerich [00:21:15]:
Gotcha. I see that now. I am, I am thoroughly convinced that you can pretty much help the majority of people that have injuries in the water. Here's my question to you. Do you see people for general fitness?
Robin [00:21:30]:
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. That's before COVID we had the gym and we did have general athletes to come in and run, but now we have referred to as kinesiologists who actually come in and are athletic therapists who work with patients and their clients individually for conditioning. For health and conditioning.
Greg [00:21:52]:
Yes. Whether it's cardiovascular, weight loss, general fitness, they might be training for an event. Again, it's something they just want to go and pick up their kids, their grandkids, you know, it's. They just the low back pain, something else. And it's like, yeah, just make me stronger so I can do this.
Irene Hammerich [00:22:11]:
Right.
Greg [00:22:11]:
And they. And it's all goal based. What's the goal? What do they want to do?
Irene Hammerich [00:22:15]:
What do you typically say to people when they're asking, when will I see progress?
Robin [00:22:21]:
I say two weeks.
Irene Hammerich [00:22:22]:
Two weeks. Okay.
Robin [00:22:23]:
Yeah, yeah. That is because it typically. They're coming twice a week, so that's four times they've been in. And it depends on what it is. I mean, if they have inflammation, they will see they can see a difference. Now we do have what they're with, the treadmills. There's a hose and it's a jet of water. And it actually is like if you think of a hot tub and there's a jet that's coming up, but the actual hose.
Robin [00:22:45]:
So it's a pressure that you can actually. It helps with dispersing the inflammation, the area. So those ones in the swelling. Yeah, out of that area. But we generally. In about two weeks, they do start to see just the mobility. You know, they're not as stiff.
Irene Hammerich [00:23:03]:
Right. How about equipment? Any special equipment that we are in, any that.
Robin [00:23:09]:
Well, we, in our complex, we have underwater treadmills, underwater bikes. We have seven or eight different gist upper body apparatus that we use that helps with training. We have rings, which is one of the interesting. Hanging from the ceiling. We have two sets of rings, gymnastic ring. So what is cool. So it's. You're hanging here.
Robin [00:23:33]:
That's the wall. So I'm pretty close to the wall. And you have somebody who, you know, it might be 57 or 82. They're holding on to these rings and they're swinging. So the water's here. So my volley's not hit. And they're swinging and they're hitting off and they're swinging back and they're swinging.
Irene Hammerich [00:23:50]:
Wow.
Robin [00:23:51]:
Just the ability to do the right. The freedom.
Irene Hammerich [00:23:54]:
That's amazing.
Robin [00:23:55]:
So, I mean, that's just. There's a number of difficulties. Well, we have surveyed 60 pieces of.
Greg [00:24:01]:
Yeah, well, it's right down to you go to the dollar store and you buy a beach ball. Well, believe it or not, we have beach ball, dollar store things. And it being able to lift and push it down in the water, you go and swim noodles. You know, noodles are everywhere now.
Robin [00:24:14]:
It's so.
Greg [00:24:14]:
And we wear through them. And I always have to have a stock over the wintertime because the stores are out of stock because we run a fruit here. Swim noodles yet.
Robin [00:24:22]:
Right, right, right, right, right, right, right.
Greg [00:24:24]:
So it can be that simple. We even teach people, just go into your community pool and go walking, but adjust the depth of where you're walking as you're increasing or decreasing the buoyancy you want. So it gets down to the scientific part of it, but it's the teaching, or if you can just go one at a time where you have to hold onto the wall. That's part. Part of even what we do is teaching them other things. So they can do it in the backyard pools for the four months we have warm water in the pools or they're going to the cottages. We actually did a segment on exercises you could do at your cottage on the side of the dock or on the beach, that type of thing. So there's.
Greg [00:25:04]:
It's whatever you can think of.
Irene Hammerich [00:25:06]:
Right.
Greg [00:25:06]:
That's what it is.
Irene Hammerich [00:25:07]:
Karen, we started the interview and you told us about your leg that broke in 2008. And unfortunately, land therapy didn't cut it for you. I'm assuming you have quite a bit of potential patients that they actually have experienced the same thing that you've experienced. It might not be a broken leg, but they went to land therapy and it didn't work. What are you all telling those people? In order for them to come in?
Robin [00:25:37]:
They actually. Because we have quite a network of physicians now refer to us. We. If somebody is. We have actually this other physical therapist clinics that refer to us. It's not working. In their clinic, they refer. So we have a very true reputation that way.
Robin [00:25:54]:
I think the most unnerving thing that happened to me is one of the patients came in. She said, I broke my leg. And she showed me, like, there's. Now it's. Everything's on the phone.
Irene Hammerich [00:26:04]:
Right.
Robin [00:26:04]:
She showed me. It was identical Break of what I had.
Irene Hammerich [00:26:08]:
What you had. Wow.
Robin [00:26:09]:
I'm like, oh. And she was so. She was still in her crutches. And I said, look at me. And I was dancing. I said, don't worry, you're going to be fine.
Irene Hammerich [00:26:17]:
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Okay. Can I ask you a few more? Is that okay? Just a few more. This has been great.
Irene Hammerich [00:26:26]:
So I was talking to you all earlier about the fact that hydrotherapy has become a little different here because in the States, we're not getting it covered in the way that it was via insurance. Now I want to talk about what you all are kind of drumming up behind the scenes. Okay. And that is helping people, like, recreate what you've done at Liquid Gyms. Here at my house, in my community, I have knee problems. Many people have injuries. We can't get to Ottawa. Okay, so.
Irene Hammerich [00:27:07]:
So. So you are creating a solution for us. So what before that comes out? Okay, what could I do now if I wanted to go in the pool now and I want it. I have issues with my knee, I have issues my lower body. What can I do right now?
Robin [00:27:28]:
Best thing, just go into the pool and walk. I'm not going to say swim or anything like that because I don't know what actually has happened to your knee, but just walking and I used to do this. Before we opened Liquid Gym lg, we wanted to do test market. So we went down and bought an endless pool and we put it into our double cart garage. We rebuilt the garage, and it was a pool house. We made a pool house out of it. And patients would come in, clients would come in, and I didn't want to have them coming every day with me, so I would send them to the local pool, right? And I said, okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go nippy a sportsplex.
Robin [00:28:04]:
And I want you to walk.
Irene Hammerich [00:28:05]:
I want.
Robin [00:28:05]:
You're going to walk forward, then you're going to walk backwards, then you're going to walk sideways. You just got step by step by step by step. And then. So that just that 20 minutes, you only do that, you would notice a huge difference just by doing that.
Irene Hammerich [00:28:20]:
As you get forward, backward, sideways, less.
Robin [00:28:22]:
Sideways if you dip. So if it's a knee, you know, crossing over, that's fine. Longer steps so you don't take strides. So it. It's going to become. I would show them what to do, and then they would do that. Said, I want you to do 20 minutes. And I would have them do it in deeper water.
Robin [00:28:38]:
Because that's what you want. There's more buoyancy, right? So water up to here, you have more. Less gravity force. So you go as deep as you can. You're not going to go under, you're not going to go underwater. Deep as you can. And then as you get stronger, you eliminate that. Because as you.
Robin [00:28:50]:
As you get into shallower water, there's more effort.
Irene Hammerich [00:28:53]:
There's more effort.
Robin [00:28:54]:
Right, Gotcha. Just doing 20. You want to do it 20 minutes, three times a week. You'll see a difference in two weeks.
Irene Hammerich [00:28:59]:
Gotcha.
Greg [00:29:00]:
And we have progressions to all of this, and that's the one thing. So that's if you're doing normal strides. And Karen said long strides. Well, we do heel toes as well. We do. When we reverted to Michael Jackson's moonwalks. So as soon as you start putting reality around. Oh, if you had a dance, how would you do it with your dance movement? So what's your background? What's your interest? Just take that and put it in the water.
Greg [00:29:24]:
And that's the starting point. But then there's actual programs and progressions as well. And so part of it is how many pools have got stairs going into them now as stairs? Well, just take the first step and do one step, one small step up, right? Go up and do two steps and start building. And so part of the program down the road is also giving people here. This is how you want to watch yourself. And so somebody says, well, my arm just kind of flips and flops around when I do it. Well, figure out, well, can you take a towel? Can you take a. A rubber band? Can you take a noodle so that you slow the movement down? And so it's all these little tips and tricks that.
Greg [00:30:06]:
And it's just showing it to them anyway, you go. And then there'll be the programs and progressions that come with that.
Irene Hammerich [00:30:13]:
Do you all know the football team, the Dallas Cowboys? Okay. All right. So I went to. Gosh, what's the name of the place? But it's basically their training facility. And their training facility is not where the stadium is. But I was speaking in Plano, Texas, and that's where the training facility is. And the Dallas Cowboys are known to have the. They're the creme de la creme.
Irene Hammerich [00:30:37]:
Okay. All right. And they have the number one training facility in all of America. So I got to take a tour. And you know what they had there?
Robin [00:30:47]:
A pool that has a floor that goes up and down.
Irene Hammerich [00:30:49]:
Lots of. A few of them. And so, you know, as We've been talking about this over the last couple days. I know this. I know that the premier athletic teams in the United States all have aquatics, they all have hydrotherapy in some capacity. This is what happens, okay? Athletes, whatever they do, active individuals follow, okay? And whatever active individuals do that now becomes mainstream again. So I say that to you because it's my final question. Why, why do you believe that these athletes are these, these programs, these massive training facilities of the Crendela Creme have put such an emphasis back on hydro?
Greg [00:31:43]:
You actually answered that. Because of my whole journey to work pro sports and semi pro sports is driven by money. And if an athlete is injured and cannot be in sport, the athlete's not making money, the team's not making money. Especially if they're the elite of the elite of the team. And whether it's the NHL, whether it's in the uk, it's the soccer teams, that athlete in that sport as a business are not making money. So they will, so they, they will spend the money to bring that person back as quickly as they possibly can to be back on the field. The fans are going to spend money and away you go.
Robin [00:32:26]:
Even we were blown away when we were hearing about high schools that have these, these pools, underwater treadmill pools in high schools in the U.S. in Canada, you'd never see that.
Irene Hammerich [00:32:38]:
Right.
Robin [00:32:38]:
And that was one of the things we did say when we're going to do this. We wanted it for the mainstream. We don't charge anymore. So. And that's part of our mission is to provide therapy for the. We don't call it the average person, but we is provide for the, for the general public to provide this therapy.
Irene Hammerich [00:32:56]:
We call it the weekend warrior.
Robin [00:32:58]:
Yeah, even the weekend warrior. And not even that. Well, the weekend warrior, but definitely also just the person that has had a car accident and they can come to us and we're not charging. And that was something in our mission statement. Our values is we did not put up, oh, we're going to charge $300. We are within the range of everybody else at charges physiotherapy. And that was what we wanted to do because I saw what was happening in the States when we came here and I saw the elite were getting it, but other people weren't getting it. And I thought we're not going to do that.
Irene Hammerich [00:33:32]:
Yeah, I really think that you all are creating a market disruptor. This is a market disruptor. Everybody wants it, but it's not available. And if you can bring it in a very seamless, easy way. You don't have to jump through all these different hoops to get it. This is a massive market disruptor, so thank you. You all know your stuff, and I'm really excited about what you're bringing to the marketplace. So thank you.
Irene Hammerich [00:34:00]:
You did a really good job. I'll give you an A plus for doing our rapid fire value. So there you go. Awesome.
Greg [00:34:07]:
I think we talked a little too long for the rapid fire for you.
Irene Hammerich [00:34:10]:
It's okay. You did pretty good. Do pretty good. All right, awesome.
