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Why Your Back Pain Is More Mental Than Physical | with Dr. Grant Elliott
2 Playsin 16 hours
Back pain is more than physical. In this episode of Spiritual Fitness, Eric Bigger sits down with Dr. Grant Elliott to talk about sciatica relief, chronic back pain, movement-based healing, mindset, faith, and how to reconnect with your body so you can heal naturally and move with confidence again.
About Dr. Grant Elliott
Dr. Grant Elliott is a Tampa based chiropractor and founder of RehabFix who specializes in treating low back pain and sciatica without surgery. With a massive social media following, he teaches movement based recovery focused on correcting disc herniation and helping people heal through specific exercises rather than passive treatments or rest. He also offers online coaching and educational content.
Website: The Rehab Fix
Instagram: @rehabfix
YouTube: RehabFix YouTube
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Transcript
Introduction to Spiritual Fitness Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Bigger. And each week, we will explore powerful practices, inspiring stories, and expert insights to guide you on your path to holistic health.
00:00:18
Speaker
By blending spirituality and physical wellness, we support you in strengthening your body and soul. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or just beginning your journey, the Spiritual Fitness Podcast is here to help you unlock your inner potential and live your most vibrant, purposeful life.
00:00:35
Speaker
It's miracle season.
00:00:39
Speaker
Spiritual fitness, spiritual fitness podcast. I'm your host, Eric Bigger, and I'm back again with another
Meet Dr. Grant Elliott and his journey into chiropractic care
00:00:45
Speaker
episode. And today we're going to get into the back. Yes, sciatica, the lower back. You got back pain? Maybe you do. But if you don't, you should listen because I got Dr. Grant Elliott on a podcast and he's incredible. He's the founder of Rehab Fix.
00:01:01
Speaker
He's a father. He's an incredible individual. And this guy is in shape. Dr. Grant, how are you? I'm doing incredible. Thank you so much for having me. Man, so let's get into it. Like back pain, sciatica, chiropractor. Like where does this all start for you in your life as a child and then being, a you know, older? Like where did this all start?
00:01:21
Speaker
Low back pain, number one disability in the world. 80% of people alive are going to experience it at some point in their life. So like, as you said, if you don't have it, you're going at some point, but this can apply to fitness and movement and just the way you feel as a whole.
Dr. Elliott’s early influences and passion for health
00:01:35
Speaker
So where this began for me was um I'm the youngest of three boys as well. I got three boys. yeah I'm the youngest three boys. And we were always involved with sports and athletics and sports.
00:01:46
Speaker
active childhood, which my parents promoted and and I appreciate. And so once like I was kind of in like middle school, high school, and seeing what my older brothers were getting into, i was like, okay, I think I want to be in like health and fitness to some capacity, yeah maybe be a doctor of something, but I don't know what. Right.
00:02:02
Speaker
So then when I was in high school and I was becoming more aware of just like health and things of, you know, to a higher level. Yeah. i started to witness all of my grandparents just receiving nothing but, you know, injections, pills and surgeries for every ailment that came up. So then I'm all right. I think I want to be into health care to some capacity.
00:02:23
Speaker
And when I was in high school, I got into racing cross country mountain bikes. So mountain bike racing in Indiana. And I was good. I was competitive. yeah And um within three years of racing, I started to get scholarship opportunities.
Personal back pain experience and dissatisfaction with traditional care
00:02:38
Speaker
wow i was going to get my college paid for. oh it was good.
00:02:41
Speaker
However, towards my last year racing, I started developing back pain. And at that point, my races were high intensity for a long period of time. So like all out for hour and a half to two hours yeah racing on trails.
00:02:53
Speaker
And so at first it started as, you know, maybe a little bit of soreness after a race. And then maybe I'd start to feel my own back the last like 10 minutes of a race. And then it was like the last 20 minutes of a race, 30 minutes of a race. And it kept increasing to where I was like, all right, this is impacting my performance now.
00:03:08
Speaker
My dad was aware of it. You know, he was always going to all the races with me and he was like, okay, well, this isn't really going away. Maybe we should do something about this. So he knew of a chiropractor that was in this area. And so we went to a chiropractor. Now this is where the story gets a little bit interesting. Turning point. Okay. This is a turning point because almost everybody i was in school with, almost every healthcare care provider that I know in different fields, they always have a personal success story, which is why it made them go into that.
00:03:32
Speaker
I go to a chiropractor and with what I know now, it was a very traditional old school chiropractor. Essentially the approach was we got to x-ray your back first. Oh, your spine's crooked. You need to see me three times a week. And that was the plan.
00:03:48
Speaker
So that's what I followed. And week after week, I didn't really see much improvement. yeah I continued racing. I was in the middle of the season. My performance did not improve.
00:03:58
Speaker
If anything, my back pain just kept getting worse to the point where I started having to get off in the middle of a race. Stretch my back, kind try to get blood out of my low back.
Discovering a movement-based chiropractic approach
00:04:08
Speaker
It was like just pumped and like, ah.
00:04:10
Speaker
And obviously at this point, my placings were rapidly going down. And I was i was getting first or second every single race. yeah And so this is an issue. So I kept doing the three times a week thing and no change to the plan. Just, you know, three minute adjustments, lay on the table, adjust, lay on the table, adjust, lay on the table.
00:04:27
Speaker
And I didn't know any better and neither did my dad. So we thought, well, this was supposed to be the solution, right? And I didn't. So I stopped racing. Wow. So hold on. So was racing your passion and like you wanted to go pro and you had offers? Like, hold on. like Was this like the pinnacle of like, I'm somebody in this realm and I can make it, but yet this back is in the way. At that point in time, I'll keep in mind, I'm in high school, so I still have a lot of maturing to go on overall goals for life. yeah But at that point in time, yeah, I mean, I was very, I mean, I had a trainer. wow. I was very, so yeah, I had a sponsor, you know, sponsored by like Bike Shop, so, you know. oh so you were really on the brink of being that guy in that realm. I was focused. So at that age, what are you, 16, 17? Yes.
00:05:12
Speaker
how often were you working out? What was your eating and food nutrition like? yeah what didn i was eat Did you work out like every week? For sure. I was writing hard five to six days a week and then training as well four to five days is a week on top of that. Nutrition, I was not, ignore my parents, I was not nutritionally sound at that point. yeah But I started to know like, I need to have more protein and I should probably stop eating less junk. So I was just doing what I knew at that time. ah But I was, I mean, i would like to think I was taking it as serious as a 16 year old or 17 year old could. So I just stopped racing because my performance just goes down, down, down. i don't know what else to do. I'm under the impression that I tried the solution. yeah And this is something I think is going to really resonate with those who are listening yeah or watching that have had back pain. I thought I tried the solution. We'll come back to that many times. Got it. I thought I tried the solution.
00:06:03
Speaker
um And so I, all right, i I can't race, I'm doing poorly, why would I why do i keep showing to races? So I just got into the gym. So I just started working out, took that passion into just 100% lifting, started getting into bodybuilding, hey, how can I develop my physique?
00:06:19
Speaker
And that's when I ran into an individual I saw at the gym who was performing exercises in a certain way, who was warming up his body in a certain way and who also had a good physique. And I was like, he's just kind of like doing exercises that I don't really see other people doing. Yeah.
00:06:34
Speaker
So I approached him and started talking to him and turns out he was a chiropractor. And then I learned about the way that he did things. And I was like, oh, so you're actually like addressing people's movement. You're doing exercise with people. You're doing soft tissue and mobility work. And that sounds very different from what I received. So I went and i shouted him.
00:06:53
Speaker
And saw that form of care, actually teaching people how to fix themselves, which was obviously very different than the more old school method of treatment that i received. And ah that inspired me to then become a chiropractor so I could be better than the one yeah that I saw to help other individuals avoid the story that I have. Yeah. And I want to say something to the people listening and watching. And i like to call this the spiritual fitness moment.
00:07:17
Speaker
So there's two things that he just addressed and acknowledged. One was a pain point, you know, coming up, you know, racing, back pain. Two was a person. So in our life, we had these pivotal moments that sometimes we're not aware of. But if you're just catching his story, the back pain and then the chiropractor. And now we're going into the next phase of where he's at. in this story, but I'm sorry. I just wanted to kind of extract that because that was very, those two points for me, if I'm watching a movie, I'm like, oh, this is another turning point for him. That helped me witness what could be. And then I was like, hey, this is the type of healthcare provider that I want to be.
00:07:50
Speaker
Like, this is cool. Teaching people how to fix themselves through movement, through exercise. I was into movement and exercise anyway. But this just attached a higher degree of advancement to that. So I got really into movement. How can I better form? Or how can I improve these things in my body? So then was like, yep, I'm going to to chiropractic school. I want to get into, can you give us some action items and some tangible things that people can take away to one alleviate back pain, what to do to strengthen our backs, and three, what we should think about day to day about just our back in general, if it's 80 to 90 percent of the population
Why movement is crucial for back pain recovery
00:08:27
Speaker
is in back pain.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yes, low back pain, number one disability in the world. You're going to deal with it, very likely. um But it's it's very, very recoverable. That's the first message, is it's very, very recoverable. You think, hey it's the number one disability. It's the number one chronic pain.
00:08:44
Speaker
But it's very, very recoverable. and There's many reasons why, hey, if it's so recoverable, then why is the you know disability so high? So first, let's look at the biggest picture. okay Majority of individuals, when they suffer from low back pain, there's a lot of fear associated with that because the majority of them have heard poor medical narratives and societal narratives about back pain. Got it. Let me give examples of both medical narrative.
00:09:09
Speaker
We need to identify what's causing your pain on an image and we need to remove it from that image in order for you to be okay. Or in, in the blood work, we need to remove that from your blood work and then you'll be okay. There's a, hey this will need surgery. This will need injections. This will need pills of some kind in order to address this. Societal narratives are, hey, my ah you know my aunt Susie, yeah, she's been using a walker for 10 years because she says it's her back and that's just the way it is when you hurt your back. yeah Your mind is conditioned to a lot of stories about back pain or about other injuries where now you perceive that to be a life-altering experience where otherwise it truly isn't. So a combination of very poor societal and medical narratives about back pain
00:09:54
Speaker
dramatically influence its chronicity. Got it. Dramatically. So one thing that everyone should understand is that if you were to randomly hurt your elbow, let's say. Yeah. Okay.
00:10:09
Speaker
You probably wouldn't freak out. Right. Right. You probably oh, whatever. It's my elbow. Like I can like still move It hurts a little bit. Whatever. I'm just going to go on with my life. That is how everybody should treat low back pain. oh That's good.
00:10:21
Speaker
It's not a big deal. Most the time, what I'm speaking to is the majority of scenarios. yeah Not the, what about this, this, this? You're always going to find some scenario that doesn't apply to the majority. I'm not talking about every little scenario.
00:10:36
Speaker
The problem is the way we treat the majority. Everyone takes majority of back issues, flare-ups, way too serious. And that's what makes them bad. Right. because it pushes them down the wrong path. So if someone hurts their back, you do not want to immediately rest, freeze everything you're doing, put your life on hold. Very, very bad. yeah You do not want to immediately run to medical providers for the purpose of imaging, medical imaging. Like, hey, I woke up with some back pain. What is it? I need an MRI. I need an x-ray to see what's going on in there. Very bad decision because you're going to find something.
00:11:11
Speaker
50% of individuals alive with no pain will have evidence of a disc bulge on their MRI. 50%. Yeah. So if I'm someone where let's say like, so what I'm saying here is there's a 50% chance that you or i have a disc bulge right now. Yeah.
00:11:28
Speaker
But we're doing okay. Right. Let's say for the next few days, you were really stressed about something. And let's say you were eating more comfort food, we'll say more inflammatory sugar things to release some endorphins. Let's say your sleep was pretty bad for the next few days as well. You were exercising as much. Okay, let's say that's the next three days. And then on the fourth day, you're like, I need to release some stress. I'm going to go crush a leg day. And you're trying to just, you know, bury yourself on squats or whatever. And you stress your back a little bit more than you normally would. Day number five, you wake up, your little back's sore.
00:12:00
Speaker
Okay. But now you run to the medical provider out of fear or the non-medical provider, the chiro PT that isn't evidence-based. It doesn't matter who it is. You're either evidence-based or you're not.
00:12:10
Speaker
and they immediately push you to an image. And now you see that disc bulge that you have right now yeah that's never caused a problem, that never would cause a problem, but you flare up your back because of external circumstances. You go get an MRI, the doctor sees a disc bulge, and now they tell you, hey, the reason for your back pain is this disc bulge. You must have herniated it during that workout.
00:12:30
Speaker
The only way to get better is for that to be off of the image. Okay, well, what's the only way to get it off of the image? Most the time. Cut it out. So now you're candidate for surgery.
00:12:41
Speaker
What? Is that like a common thing? Absolutely. What? The scenario I just described. is this lucrative business for people in those fields to make money with condition? And I'm not saying, I'm saying absolutely, but not with the intention. Yeah. of saying people are purposely doing this. I think there are some people who- Well, they get programming professions, right? Yeah, yeah. But a lot of it hey, if someone's trained a certain way, then they're operating within those parameters. But that's the difference between a provider being evidence-based or not evidence-based. Got it. provider should look at the research and understand these conditions from all angles. So realistically, an evidence-based chiropractor, physical therapist,
Understanding sciatica and effective treatments
00:13:22
Speaker
medical doctor, or doctor of osteopathy, we should all look almost the same.
00:13:27
Speaker
in regards to treating back pain, or at least the same advice. You might not be a specialist in rehab, and that's fine, but if you're evidence-based, you should understand, hey, you have back issues. I'm not gonna immediately push you to imaging. I'm not gonna immediately push pain pills on you have you. Do you have a movement-based plan? No. Okay, well, then you should see a movement-based provider first. That should be the portal of interest. So they should all have the same ah classification, essentially, of how to triage a patient.
00:13:53
Speaker
That should be almost unanimously agreed upon. yeah So that's the biggest thing is is back pain is common. Many scenarios can influence it. Don't immediately rest. Don't freak out. go Don't catastrophize yeah your situation. Don't run to imaging. Don't try to put a label on it.
00:14:08
Speaker
That is a bad idea. The best thing you can do is go, hey, you know what? Maybe my sleep hasn't been good. Maybe my diet hasn't been good. Maybe I've been stressed. There's about a 99% chance that my back's going to be fine. I should just resume my life as normal, resume normal everyday activities and not think about it.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. If everybody did that, the impact on our healthcare system that low back pain has would ah drop like 80%. Yeah. It would be monumental. Yeah. And how do you feel about recovery in general? Like cold plunge, cryo, deep tissue massage, hyperbaric. I mean, when I had like really a lot of stress, hyperbaric or my bio mat that I have at home and I feel better the next day, you know, or how about magnesium? Does magnesium help with, I had a client who once she started taking magnesium, the back pain kind of went away. So I'm not sure if that helps, but what is your take on recovery in general when it comes to the back? and Sciatica. Yep.
00:15:10
Speaker
So I'm going to give you an answer that is more based on the the principle of healing. Got it. So 90% of low back pain is in the category of nonspecific lower back pain, which means you cannot trace it back to one singular thing. So when you're bringing up things like cold plunge, magnesium, whatever, those are singular things. Okay. So here's a great way to picture back pain in your head is imagine ah we're using like a pie chart. yeah Okay. So pie chart and 80% of the pie chart is going to just be labeled movement and mindset.
00:15:44
Speaker
Got it. That's 80% the pie chart, movement and mindset. 20% of the pie chart is going to be extra. Okay. So what is an extra? Passive therapies, additional modalities. So what are passive therapies? Passive therapies are things that are being done to you that you are not doing to yourself. So passive t treatment or passive therapies is going to be adjustments, massage, acupuncture, laser, massage,
00:16:12
Speaker
Graston, like tissue scraping, soft tissue work. That's all a passive therapies. So those are things that can be helpful in some scenarios, but would not be considered a absolute necessity for the big picture. Okay. Within that 20% as well would be those extras you're referring. yeah Cold plunge, sauna, you know red light therapies, hyperbaric. These things are extras, but we don't want to step over $100 bills to pick up pennies. okay So in this scenario, for back pain, I mean, low back pain is a movement-based problem and needs a movement-based solution. Wow. Okay, like movement is medicine. I say that a lot, but what's the movement-based solution? i love that. So a movement-based solution is going to be movement interventions, rehab. Okay. So if we take an individual, again, who nine to five, they're sitting down. Yeah. They don't know movement hacks, let's say, that they can do throughout their day to counteract all the sitting they're doing, all the lack of movement. Yeah.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then maybe they are going to the gym, but they're doing the same repetitive movements and they're not exposing their body to other variations of movement that it's missing. Okay. Back pain is very mechanical. It's very emotional mental as well. There's a huge mindset component to it, but it largely is mechanical. So it's induced by you doing too many of the wrong movements or not enough of the right movements or a combination of the both. Got So you need a movement-based plan to counteract the movement-based problem.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like majority of people with back pain, if you ask them, when does it hurt? They'll able to tell you either sitting long period or when I do these movements. Yeah. Well, there you go. Yeah. it does it's It's related to your movement. So is in this scenario, the $100 bills, that's going to be things that are related to movement or mindset and pain education, understanding pain, but mostly movement. right The pennies are the, oh, I heard acupuncture really good for back pain.
00:18:11
Speaker
or Or i heard, yeah yeah yeah or i heard i need to in order to to fix my back pain, I need this new $10,000 bed. like Those are the pennies. But in reality, they cost the most. In that scenario, the $100 bills are the person that isn't aware of their movement, doesn't know how to move, doesn't have a movement plan, is it ah isn't even aware that their movement could relate to it. yeah Hey, if you give someone who just is sedentary,
00:18:38
Speaker
And let's say they have all these doctors and they can have all these procedures and they can have all the extras. Yeah. You tell someone who's sedentary, who isn't moving at all, you give them the plan of, you know what? The only thing I want you to focus on is just walking 15 minutes in the morning and walking 15 minutes a night.
00:18:53
Speaker
Yeah. That's a $100 That person, the penny would be the new bed. Got it. The hyperbaric. Got it. The injection, the stem cell. the Those would be the pennies. The lazy movement, the late the penny. Wow. Now, does scoliosis have anything to do with the back being in pain or being off? So yeah, very different topic. Got it.
00:19:16
Speaker
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So scoliosis and is definitely a different subject matter, but scoliosis is one of those things that is is really misunderstood, honestly. a lot of people are labeled with this and they're told, hey, the reason for your pain is because scoliosis. Right. But a lot of times that's not totally true. Scoliosis is only a problem if it's a problem, meaning it's normal for the human body to have variations in quote unquote
Insights into scoliosis and when to seek treatment
00:19:40
Speaker
alignment. Got it. No one is born perfectly symmetrical. Okay. Nobody in for you and me and 90% of the population. if If you hold your arms out to the side and and you cut your body in half, your right side isn't matching your left side. Right. And so it's unfair to set a precedent that everyone's spine should be straight and should look the exact same. True.
00:20:00
Speaker
It's normal for us to look differently on the outside. It's normal for us to look differently on the inside too from a skeletal structure. That's unfair. So a lot of people are going to have variations and twists and turns of their spine and other joints of their body too.
00:20:13
Speaker
No big deal. That doesn't automatically mean something's wrong with somebody. It just means they look a little bit differently. got it But clinically, progressive scoliosis, if someone is of a younger age and is progressing to a certain degree year over year over year, then that does predict pain or dysfunction into the future. And that is something that that should be addressed.
00:20:35
Speaker
But to be very clear, i don't want people to hear what I'm not saying. yeah I'm not saying if someone's circumstance with scoliosis is clinically indicated to treat and could potentially cause a problem, that does not mean they will not be able to perform and succeed to a great degree yeah in various things in their life. Usain Bolt has pretty decent scoliosis. There's Olympic swimmers that have severe called scoliosis. It does not mean you cannot achieve, you know, ultimate things Yeah, and I bring the word up because I know growing up that was a very heavy used word. Especially for stress you feel like the back or in line of the body. And sciatica is like this new word. If you had someone come, I had this one guy, he's always in my DM.
00:21:17
Speaker
Eric, man, can you send me a prayer, man? My sciatica got worse, it got bad. Always, right? I'm like, I know a few other people, same thing. And those other people were more come from drinking, right? I don't know if alcohol does anything with sciatics, right? It'll fit. So if that person came to you right now, I think you gave us one tip, go walk for 15 minutes, right?
00:21:37
Speaker
What would you tell them? and And what's the quickest way to get someone out of that sciatica pain yeah from your standpoint? Great. So most, so I'm going to answer from the standpoint of most common presentation of these as always, someone listening to this is going to go, well, I don't think mine would do that. I, I know, i know what is sciatica yeah on paper? Sciatica is termed as just any pain traveling down the back of the leg, following the track of the sciatic nerve. Now, there's technically multiple things that can cause sciatica, but when most people use the term sciatica, it is sciatic nerve pain.
00:22:12
Speaker
It's going to be burning, electric shock-like, or lancinating pain going down the back of the leg. This can often be accompanied with numbness or tingling anywhere throughout the leg, but most commonly in the foot or toes. Mm-hmm.
00:22:23
Speaker
in the most common presentation of sciatica is going to be what we call flexion intolerant, meaning bending forward. That's flexion. You and I are sitting in flexion right now. It does not like that. Got it. The reason why is because when we sit in flexion or bend forward in flexion,
00:22:42
Speaker
mechanically that is shifting the pressure on the discs in our lumbar spine it shifts the pressure posteriorly to the back normally that is not an issue that's no problem with flexion but if someone has a disc bulge or a sensitive disc or a sensitive nerve What happens is I want you to imagine a water balloon. If I pinch the front of the water balloon, the water shifts to the back. Okay. Now the nerves exit behind the disc. Yeah. So if a nerve is here, and for those who are just listening, I'm just moving my finger next to the theoretical water balloon. If I pinch the front, it pushes more at the back.
00:23:19
Speaker
Now it starts to hit the nerve. Right. That's what would create sciatica down the leg. Got it. That's why it's movement based. Yeah. Movement is what causes it. Yeah. So in that typical presentation, we think, all right, if bending forward, if sitting forward, if forward pressure is increasing pressure on the disc, which is therefore increasing pressure on the nerve and making your rostatica worse, then we need to decrease pressure on the disc, which will then decrease pressure on the nerve and make your rostatica better. Got it.
00:23:48
Speaker
So here's a fun movement principle. If going this way, if bending forward makes it worse, then why don't we just do the opposite movement? yeah Could that make it better?
00:24:03
Speaker
And the answer a lot of times is yes. So we would want that individual to begin doing extension-based movements. So bending their back backwards the opposite way. yeah Forward increases pressure one way, backwards increases pressure the other way. It'll start to shift it the opposite direction. So in that scenario,
00:24:24
Speaker
Again, this is not all scenarios. But I would want to tell that individual, hey, first off, let's assess you. right Do you match this type of presentation?
00:24:35
Speaker
If he says yes, bending forward, sitting for long periods, or stretching my leg out, oh, feels so tight like a rubber band in the back of my leg, then we're going to lay flat on your stomach. We're going your hands under your shoulders like you're going to push-up. You're gonna totally relax your lower back, totally relax your glutes, and you're gonna push your chest up off the ground as far as you can comfortably, keeping your hips on the floor, going into an arched position. Yeah. Like a cobra pose, I can yoga. Cobra, yeah,
00:25:00
Speaker
It might be a little bit sensitive. You're probably gonna be restricted. That's to be expected. But what I want you to do is I want you to just kiss the pain and then go back down. Kiss the pain, go back down. Repetitively.
00:25:14
Speaker
Discs love repetitive motion. So with every rep you do, if you notice, it gets a little bit easier. You can go a little bit further. And as you go further, push it further. And it just continues to get easier and easier and easier. yeah what that's doing in your spine is it's slowly shifting the disc back.
00:25:33
Speaker
the direction it came from leached from, and it's equalizing the pressure, which means it's moving away from the nerve, and that individual can feel immediate pain reduction.
The role of decision-making in personal growth
00:25:46
Speaker
Like as soon as they stand up, they're going to notice less symptoms in their leg, better mobility, their leg will feel lighter, their low back will feel lighter. It'll be an immediate improvement because we're finding the direction the disc wants to go to centralize the symptoms. And centralization got it is a term we use in our program. It's the centralization process where we find the directions of your spine or the directions of your nerve that you're missing.
00:26:11
Speaker
And as soon as we find those directions and we start to load those directions, real time, the individual will feel the symptoms in the leg or in the lower back centralized, meaning coming out of the leg or out of the lower back and centering and getting less and less and less and less and less to where eventually it eliminates. It's beautiful because it sounds like your company, your team, you guys have the formula for people to feel safe in their body again without resistance. Because I do believe pain is pain body, right? it it also feels like, you know, you give people the capacity to know what's happening in their body that they can actually feel physically
00:26:50
Speaker
That's hurting them. Context. Because I feel like when people don't have context, they live from the perception that that thing causes. I'm to a doctor. I'm gonna remove the disc. to take the magnesium. to get the pen. You know what saying? Like, because they don't know what they don't know. And this is why I think you are just phenomenal your profession, because you know what you know and you trust it. Well, before we get off here, I got a few questions. ah Three questions, by the way.
00:27:16
Speaker
What's your biggest fear? Number two is, what's your greatest joy? And number three is, when you think of spiritual fitness, what does that mean to you? If I had to pick like a heights, ocean, whatever, I would straight up pick spiders. Okay, there we go I do not like spiders, man. If, if dude, there was one time- i Bring the spider here. Oh, no, no. Like, this is a thousand percent mental conditioning. Right? A thousand percent it is. and And I know that. Yeah. Which makes me feel silly about it. but yeah, there was one time, dude, this larger spider landed on my chest. I straight up froze and just started to like- like sweating. I couldn't move. I was like frozen, man. right i was like, who am I? like I'm in the gym squatting, deadlifting, 500 pounds, and I like freak out from a spider. it's so It's so silly. A bigger picture life here would be missing out on opportunities that absolutely could have been seized. wo
00:28:02
Speaker
That's great. Wow. yeah And that comes from not making decisions. So a way I make a lot of decisions is I am really good at squeezing value out of everything that I do. It's a skill. I'm super good at getting value out of everything, man. Like there could be a coach that could be like, Hey, my coaching program, I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's, it's 10 grand sign up for my program. I just like, okay, they go. The program is, here you go. You just bought 11, 10,000 bucks, 11, nothing else involved. Got it. I could figure out how to turn that into a hundred grand.
00:28:33
Speaker
I just could. I could figure it out. That's gift. So what I've learned is like, there's so many opportunities and the inability to see them or to seize them could really impact your life in in various ways. So a fear that I could actually connect to would be like missing those opportunities because I didn't have the right lens on yeah at that point in time. Got it.
00:28:55
Speaker
but So so that would be that would be my fear. Question number two. What is your greatest joy? Greatest joy? Growth, man. Oh. I love that. Growth. yeah A thousand percent. Because growth, again, well, what is the outcome from that? Like, that's very different than like what what it is that you're pursuing. If you're addicted to the growth, then maybe, okay, I'm addicted to growth in my business. Okay, that means I make more money, but whatever. Like money is the reflection that I'm growing. Right. Cool. Right.
00:29:25
Speaker
I want growth in my relationship with my wife. Right. Okay. So what is the result of that look like? It looks like we're thinking about each other more. Right. We have more one-on-one time at night. We don't even realize it. We're joking with each other more, texting each other more. We don't even realize it. Right.
00:29:39
Speaker
Positive life outcome. Okay. So like what I find is anyone that's just addicted to the doing. Yeah. is always reaping way more benefits than if they're focusing on the results of it. Right, right. Now, you need to care about the result to a certain capacity. But I would say, like, yeah, what brings me joy is growth because I apply growth to multiple areas of my life. And does a growth connotation change? We talked about connotation. yeah What if you can't do?
00:30:06
Speaker
What if you're not in a process to move as much, but you still, you, because you can squeeze the 10,000 limit and make 100, you're going to find a way to grow. because So when you think about growth, what is your definition of just kind of so people can understand your paradigm? Because that's a beautiful, the way you kind of like laid it out is out there, but it's not just that.
00:30:26
Speaker
making money, spending more time your wife. It's just in all of life. It could just be sitting in silence. to You, the individual you, would find growth in that and that would bring you joy.
00:30:37
Speaker
Because I think what I'm learning from you today is that you have internalized your own definitions of what things mean to you and you stand on it. So therefore you benefit from it. Where someone's like, oh, we just got a limit for $10,000. You're like, yep.
00:30:50
Speaker
And I'm going to make $100,000. You get what I'm saying? You know how to extract things from those areas. Well, the words you attach to experiences create the experience. Oh, see?
00:31:00
Speaker
Oh, like cloudy day. like Today's not great. It doesn't matter what's going on your day. Just say today is great. Like no matter what you're doing or like this experience is great, no matter what it is, because then you will think about it that way and then you will react in that way and then you will produce it that way. Hence being able to squeeze value out of every opportunity. Absolutely. And then last question, spiritual fitness. What is spiritual fitness to you?
00:31:23
Speaker
Well, my first thought that comes to mind when I when i heard this associated with you and and with the show, my interpretation of that media is like, we got to honor our bodies. Yeah. God gave us a body. There we go. And that and that that thing's a temple. And so um i am very committed to my health and fitness. And I think...
00:31:45
Speaker
And this is just my opinion, but I think a majority of individuals and and there's a lot of context and there can be a lot of baggage that might come in certain people's lives that can influence the way they look and the way that they feel. And I fully understand that. yeah But I think of it as, um God gave me the ability to move my body and God gave me the ability to be very committed and dedicated to the things I want to do. And I should absolutely represent my physicality and my fitness. And your fitness can not be just physical fitness, right mental fitness as well in other areas. So I was given a gift and I should you know represent him through that.
00:32:28
Speaker
And my physical fitness is is is an external, you know, of of that that people can see. But your fitness through um various other endeavors in life or or mindset are more internalized ones.
00:32:40
Speaker
But I think the easiest one to latch on to is like, hey, your body is a representation of what God gave you. yeah Like, you should care about it. And if you're disrespecting your body and you're seeing your body and your mind go... negative directions, you're not honoring him as as much as I think you otherwise could be because you were given you're given a gift. that's right The ability to move and exercise, it's a celebration of what your body can do and what you've been alive. You get to thrive and you get to use it with intentions.
00:33:07
Speaker
I want to pivot into um spiritual fitness, but spirituality. When you think about spirituality, faith, God, or religion, what's the first thing that comes up for you and how do you use that in your day to day? Well, I mean, if I hear the terms spirituality, I mean, I i immediately go to just my Christian upbringing honora christian household and got it you know my own relationship with yeah with God and the parameters of my life and the way in which I attempt to operate. That's where my mind initially goes. Absolutely. Because the thing I've noticed um about very successful people, I have the privilege to coach a lot of them, it's not even about a religion, but there is an anchor of God in them that comes out of them, but I think it's a spiritual intelligence. That's why I actually wore you intuitive.
00:33:47
Speaker
Because the name Rehab Fix was like, that's an interesting transmission because people don't know words have power. How did you get to that? And when you think about doing stuff and making decisions, what's your process? Do you just think and do? Do you sit in silence? Are you meditating? Are you on a walk? Are you working out? Like, how do you come to the elevation of realization? Like, OK, I have to do this. Like, where does that happen for you?
00:34:10
Speaker
Well, first off, I'd say at this point, at least where I'm at in life now, I make decisions very fast. Right. And I think a majority of successful individuals do. Absolutely. Like, I kind of swore off the phrase, I got to think about it in like 2021.
00:34:23
Speaker
I like don't do that anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because success loves speed. Right. So I moved very quickly. In regards to like the name Rehab Fix, really not a complex story, but maybe there was more. you know, intuition behind it. I realized I was just looking for, okay, what is a handle that is not too long on Instagram yeah that has some relation to the outcome I want people to have um that is easy to remember and is like clickable, you know, like there are all these like long ones associated with my name. And I was like, nah, I need something like concise. And so i was like, well, I'm doing rehab with people. I want to fix people's bodies and teach them how to fix themselves. So just,
00:34:57
Speaker
Put those two together, it was available, and so I statched it. And that was essentially the extent of of that story. um but But that was your thought process to get to that, right? Yeah, yeah, sure. You see, people, if you listen to what he's saying, he's giving you a framework of how he's coming up with his creation. I feel like we were created to create.
00:35:13
Speaker
And you have a way about creating things and you make decisions quick because you have faith and trust and certainty in what you're doing. You're not questioning it. yeah And I think a lot of people question what they're doing because even they're not the evidence, they don't have it, or they're looking for validation. You seem very competent and confident in what you're doing and how you're doing it. And I feel like that's why the success comes beyond the work you put in because you're they say the moment you're thinking, you don't know.
00:35:39
Speaker
But when you know and you don't think, it works. Yeah. There's a skill behind decision making. Yeah. Like there are absolutely people who are who are bad at making decisions and are good at making decisions. Right. And often, like you just said, yeah the people who think less are the better decision makers. Right, right. Because they just they operate on what's for momentum. What will get me closer to that thing? I just need to do yeah instead of overthink, overanalyze, overcomplicate and all this. But yeah, I mean, I think that comes with the territory of of trusting your own decisions. There we go. Now we talking. You have evidence that you've been able to make good decisions. And so now you don't think about your own decisions. You trust your own decisions. Oh, hold on. Slow it up. Hey, hey, hold on. Did I catch that? You don't think about your decisions. You trust your decisions. That's a mic drop. Did you know that just came out? You don't think about your decisions.
00:36:29
Speaker
You trust your decisions. That is a frequency. That is a high frequency. That is emotional intelligence. That is spiritual fitness. You trust. You don't think. That's like that's like atra I'm sorry.
00:36:42
Speaker
That was beautiful. yeah Right. But no, because I want people to understand, like sometimes they see people that have big platforms that do well in life and they think it's something they're doing that's, oh my God.
00:36:53
Speaker
It's very simple. I trust my decisions and I take action and I don't allow too much time to think and I get it done. And what happens out of that? Things happen. But you trust your decisions. Right.
00:37:05
Speaker
And this is why you get the rehab fix and you are who you are because you trust your decisions. So if I want to get chiropractic, if you want to get chiropractic, you to get your back worked on a fixed sciatica, you want to go with someone who trusts their decisions, who have evidence of their decisions based on their life as a husband, as a business owner and as a person. That's the beautiful part. And that's why I want people to know, like, sometimes they see the product of you, but they don't know the person that you are. And that intelligence is why the product of the rehab fix and everything you're doing is the driving force is you because you trust your decisions. Now, I saw one of your social media posts and you talked about how you got started into the social media world. Like I said prior, you're very intentional.
00:37:50
Speaker
You had the high school, you had the chiropractor guy that you met, you got your education, you opened up a practice, you got married, right? And you have- Got married before going to chiropractor school. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Before. But these processes, right, which I'm seeing, and then you talked about what made you go on social to start posting content. And I think the story, if I can recall, was you wasn't thinking about a year. He's like, I'm thinking five years. So let me post, don't know you've said every day or every week for a year and see what I'll get back from that. What was the intentions behind that? And did something happen in your life was like, oh, that's interesting. That video did like 2 million.
00:38:26
Speaker
Let me think about that. What was that turning point yeah for you to get into this? but I mean, because you got what? Almost a million subscribers on YouTube, a million on Instagram. That's a big accomplishment. And, you know, you're a chiropractor. Right. And you're talking about sciatica and back pain. So what was that like? Did you take that same intensity from motorsports or from biking? Yeah. I'm just, I'm just intense about everything. Yeah. It's really yeah about anything that I do. I'm pretty intense about it. So yeah, at this point we have over 3 million followers across our platforms. Yeah. And the way that that journey began is I was, I was a little over halfway through school. Yeah. So this is 2018. I graduated December of 2019. 2020 was my first year working. yeah
00:39:05
Speaker
And in late 2018, I was like, hey, my plan is to move back to Indiana where I'm from, where my community is to open up a practice because that's where as we feel safe. yeah or Or at that time, not even open, not even open, just work under that chiropractor that inspired me to go to school. Yeah.
00:39:21
Speaker
And so at that point in time, because I went to school with a movement exercise focused mindset, I was very rehab focused. How can I learn these exercises for different conditions and teach people how to fix themselves so they don't need me? That was my number one mission.
00:39:35
Speaker
So I was like, hey, I'm taking a lot of courses. I was the president of a rehab club teaching people how to do rehab. And so I was like, I need to start posting about this because i need to build a portfolio of sorts so that when I go back to Indiana, If someone has even the thought of, well, you're a chiropractor. Well, how do you practice or what do you do? I can simply say, follow my social media and you'll see exactly my approach or how things might be different. Because not many providers are kind of doing a better rehab approach.
00:40:05
Speaker
So I started posting just some general education that I was teaching at the club that I was running. And I was posting, you maybe like once a month and then once every two weeks and then like once a week. And I kind of got into it because I had a little bit of editing skills developed from what used to skateboard when I was younger. I was really into skateboarding from like 11 to 15 years old. And i had a camera and I got editing software and I learned how to edit.
00:40:29
Speaker
So I started doing some my captions and editing and screens on on my rehab videos. And they started growing a little bit, started getting more followers. And then I got addicted to the growth of that.
00:40:40
Speaker
Like, hey, okay this is cool. How can I make my video better? How can I get more likes? How can I get more views on it? How can I get more followers? Not for the sake of any outcome.
00:40:51
Speaker
Right. Because again, my whole goal was just to build a portfolio, not to make any money from doing it. Yeah. Just simply a portfolio. But I fell in love. I became addicted to the growth of it. Yeah.
00:41:04
Speaker
So was posting once a week and then like twice a week. like How do i make it better? How do I get it better? And then I listened to a podcast where they were talking about social media and the individual had just stated, hey, you know what? Like if you really want to grow, like you just got to, you just got post every day. You just got to do it. Yeah.
00:41:19
Speaker
And so I heard that. And in 30 seconds, I just went, okay. And I'm in the middle of my doctorate program. On average, we had 36 to 42 credit hours per trimester. yeah So we think college, 15 credit hours is normal. 36 to 42 training on top of it. I was working as well as a personal trainer. it's like, right, going to post every day.
00:41:40
Speaker
So at that point in time, it was about a year before graduating. So I'm going to post every day for a year until I graduate and just see where things are at. Yeah. That's what I did. I grew 100,000 followers before I graduated. And that's ultimately what totally launched my business, which I was not expecting. So how do we find
Building the Rehab Fix brand through social media
00:41:56
Speaker
you? How do we get in your world? How do we sign up to your online program if we're having back pain or just, we just want to, i mean, because you're a chiropractor, right? We want a alignment, we want adjustments. Yeah.
00:42:05
Speaker
How do we find you? Give us the spiel. Yeah. So we're excited to help people all around the world learn to fix themselves. You know, it's not a you need us or you need this product or you need this fix. Definitely not the scenario. But if you learn the right movement based plan.
00:42:21
Speaker
And you learn how to fix yourself. Then guess what? You're not going to eat us ever again. Right. You're not going to eat anyone else ever again. So you can, of course, find all of our channels at Rehab Fix. Instagram is our most popular one. yeah, we're almost to a million subscribers on YouTube as well.
00:42:36
Speaker
And you can see all of our free content. And the free content is amazing. The free content alone has helped tens of thousands of people get pain-free for free. Yeah. And I hope that those who are listening or watching utilize that and see, hey, I already found some benefit. But here's a great thing is if you find benefit just in what you see or if you experience benefit from actually trying it, what that means is if you get the next steps after that, then you can fully recover and it can stay that way. absolutely So something I want to offer those who are listening is that extra bit. And so I have a material that is not posted anywhere. It's not released anywhere. And what it is, is it's it's an assessment.
00:43:14
Speaker
Whenever we meet with a client, ah we always take them through a full one-hour assessment before enrolling them in our program because our program is tailored to their situation. And so what I have for those listening, and I'm going to give you the opportunity to get in just a moment, is I actually walk you through that full assessment.
00:43:30
Speaker
So if you're watching it, i teach you how to do it yourself. Okay. So try this test, try this test, try this test. If you felt this pain or this symptom, here's what it means. So now try this exercise or this exercise or this exercise based on that. And actually we'll walk you through figuring out what's causing your pain and what you need to do to begin fixing that real time.
00:43:50
Speaker
And all you need to do is go to our Instagram account, Rehab Fix, and just DM us the word podcast. Nothing else, love that just the word podcast, and we'll send the training to you. And you can have the chance to walk through that and to experience some real-time relief with me virtually. And of course, if you then want you know the opportunity to work one-on-one with us and to get more of an analysis with us, you'll have the opportunity to do so.
00:44:14
Speaker
Grant, thank you for your time. This was beautiful. lo Thank you for being spiritually fit. People, go to the Rehab Fix, DM, podcast, follow him on all socials. This is a spiritual fitness episode. This is adjourned. We're done. Subscribe to the YouTube, download the episode, and we see you guys soon. Be great. Stay spiritually fit.
00:44:35
Speaker
Peace.
00:44:38
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you and provided valuable insights for your holistic health journey. By blended spirituality and physical wellness, you can strengthen your body, mind, and soul.
00:44:53
Speaker
If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired, and remember, it's miracle season.