EPISODE 432: Elevating Human Potential with Andy Galpin, PHD

Hey, chiropractors. We're ready for another Modern Chiropractic Marketing Show with Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing strategies, contact marketing, direct response marketing, and business development with some of the leading experts in the industry.

Dr. Kevin Christie: All right. Excited to have Dr. Andy Galpin on the show today to discuss kind of the, the mixing of performance and, and health and injury prevention. But before we dive into that, that fun stuff there, uh, tell us a little about what you have going on these days. Sure. Well, the

Andy Galpin: top priority I've got is we're building a brand new human performance center at Parker University.

It's, it's about 64,000 square feet. Uh, we are under construction right [00:02:00] now. Uh, but eventually that thing will house one of the most day of the art, uh, research and performance and community centers, uh, that, that you'll see in the world, in the area of human performance. So that occupies the majority of my time trying to build that and fund that and.

And make sure that that thing is operating the way that needs to, to put not only perform Parker on the map, but really human performance and help out where we can. So, uh, that's the bulk of my time right now.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And you got your fellow podcaster as well, right? How's that going?

Andy Galpin: Yeah, that's great. Uh, season two of my Joe, it's called Perform with Dr.

Galpin, uh, is out now. So the first season was, I think 10 episodes. Second season was 12. And so we keep it tight, um, keep it on theme and then just do a couple of seasons a year. Um, but that's going great. It's, uh, I don't know where we are now, but we spend a lot of time in the number one or number two slot, um, on iTunes.

So, um, going pretty well.

Dr. Kevin Christie: I love it. Great show. And it's, uh, you know, a little bit of my background. I've been practicing for 20 years as [00:03:00] a sports chiropractor, but, uh, I exercise physiology major at Florida State University. Graduated in, in oh two and, and I kind of lived that world concurrently a little bit as, uh, also with the C-S-C-S-I was doing.

Adjunct professor with exercise physiology down here at. Nova South Southeastern, which was, which was fun. And then I got to see kind of that marriage between, uh, once I became more of a practicing chiropractor working with sports injuries. I also was a clinical director, uh, for a couple NFL combine training programs.

One was Rito performance, and then the other one. With Tony Ani and XPE sports, and you may have heard them. They've been doing a lot of things and uh, I was with them from oh eight all the way till 2022. And I bring that up, uh, because I just, when I found out Parker was doing this, I loved it, you know, 'cause I've seen it both worlds on really, I.

Some facilities are strictly performance and in some, [00:04:00] obviously you got plenty of healthcare facilities that are strictly injury or surgery, think medicine, things like that. And I love seeing the, the blend of the two. And I know we're gonna, uh, dive into that. Uh, some of the, I. I think, uh, I think those two gentlemen I mentioned would, would attest, and I'm sure you've seen it too, the combine training's, one of the worst scenarios you could have of trying to blend performance and someone's health.

Right. Because you, yeah, you try to turn 300 pounders sometimes into track stars and we have to pick up the pieces there. So that was a, a fun experience for sure.

Andy Galpin: Yeah. Well, Pete, uh, is actually, I was just in, uh, so next, uh, summer Strong with him, uh, not too long ago. Yeah. He's been around a long time making people Yeah.

Really fast, really athletic, doing a great job. But yeah, you're right. The combine, uh, whether it's the N-F-L-N-B-A or, um, major League baseball, it's tough because they roll right into the, off the season. Mm-hmm. Uh, they've just played a, you know, pretty six to seven month long, hard season, probably played in [00:05:00] into December, if not longer.

And then they take a week or something and roll right into combine training. And then if they do that, well, they're not, they're gonna go right into OTAs or rookie mini camp ota. So they end up playing for, you know, 23 months in a row or something like that, which is really, really tough. So, and to your point also, they're, they're maximizing performance on things that are not necessarily football.

And so you are pulling them away a lot from what they should be doing. So, yeah, I, I hear it. It's a tug and pull between performance and health for sure.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And I wanted to start out with that, 'cause like, what is your mindset going at it from a, you know, you got a perspective here where I. You know, some, some people are coming to you to perform at something and you know, you have to get them to a certain level, even though it may not be in their best, uh, interest long term.

Obviously in this scenario. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of scenarios that run parallel to this. So we'll just use this as an example, uh, where, you know, there's a, a set goal. It's, it's kind of going against. Odds in a sense, but you [00:06:00] gotta do it. It's what you're, you're doing there. What are some of the mindset of that you have going in there?

Is it putting, uh, a lot of emphasis on, uh, evaluations of them? Is it getting a team around there? What are some of the things you're thinking?

Andy Galpin: Yeah, of course. We wanna see data as much as we possibly can, because ultimately our top end philosophy is when you wanna go faster, and let's say you're driving a car, the initial instinct is to hit the accelerator.

Right. And if you do that, you will go faster. But what we look at first is, is there foot on the brake? Meaning if your foot is also riding the brake and you hit the accelerator, you will go faster, but you're gonna add a lot of wear and tear really fast, and you might break, you might not. But either way, you're not even going as fast as you possibly could.

So no matter how you're looking at this, it's bad news. And so the step, the first thing we always take is let's get the foot off of the brake. By doing that, you will reduce wear and tear and you will actually speed up. Once we've done that and you wanna go faster after that, then you can hit the accelerator and [00:07:00] we're less concerned.

And so what that looks like is whatever their biggest performance anchor is, we wanna remove that. We wanna see how far we can possibly get. And some guys, that's all you have to do. A lot of guys, it's not, it's not enough. You really gotta make 'em move faster. Um, I spent a little bit of time doing combine prep.

Uh, I was an intern for Mark Forte in it. It's, you know, way back in the day. Mm-hmm. Yep. And so we went through this a little bit, and you'll see guys, this is like, hey. Just, you know, open 'em up a little bit. Some flying sprints and some other stuff. Talk about some technique on some of the, um, tests, but then just keep 'em healthy and they're fine.

Right? And then other guys are like, you're gonna be a borderline pick. Sixth, seventh, rounder. Maybe not picked at all. You have to move a 10th or two tenths off of 40, you have to put three or four inches on, or like, that's gonna be the difference between drafted or not drafted, guaranteed contracts for, or you know, all that stuff.

So that's a different answer. Right. And then depending on where, how guys are, how broken they are or not broken, when they [00:08:00] come in off the season, how good of a quality training they had. Uh, we had actually a guy. Years ago who played a quarterback at the University of Virginia, but he knew he was gonna play quarterback in the NFL.

He was wide receiver play. I think he ran a four, seven, um, 40, and he was, you know, 29 inch vertical jump or something like that. You, you're just not gonna get picked. Yeah. As a quarterback transitioning, he just didn't have any of it. Right. He also ate, I don't remember what it was, but it was some fast food every single day.

Mm-hmm. And we're like, okay. We actually don't have to do anything here. We just have to get him to lose 20 pounds. Mm-hmm. Because he was pretty soft and he was always like, oh, I gotta, I gotta have extra weight. 'cause I get hit so much as a quarterback that protects me. Yeah. Which is a terrible argument, but let's just say it's a real argument.

Well, fine, that doesn't matter because you're gonna run a 4, 7, 5, um, as a, and never played receiver and it's just, it's not gonna happen. So we just went through fat camp with him, basically we're just like, we had six weeks or something. We're just like gonna peel you off and get you down unless you can.

Anyways, we ended up taking about three [00:09:00] tenths off his 40 yard dash and putting four or five inches on his Burt, not because the training was spectacular, he just took a 25 pound backpack off.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah.

Andy Galpin: And so his case was like, his performance anchor was like, you are just never, it doesn't matter what we teach you technique wise.

It doesn't matter what post activation, potentiation or what train, it's six weeks. You just like get body fat off you and you'll, you know, as my friend Paul says, like fat doesn't fly. So yes. And whether that was best for his career or not 'cause injury, I don't know. But in your point, I don't even care because right now you've gotta get to this thing six weeks from now.

Yeah. And that's what it is. So yeah, go super low calorie injury rate risk is high. Mm-hmm. Who cares? Because if you don't perform well, you're not gonna get drafted anyways. You're not even probably gonna do a tryout. And so it was like, roll all the dice as hard as you possibly can and it doesn't matter.

Mm-hmm. Contrast that to, I think we had 15 guys go in the first round of the draft. Yeah. So we had some guys that were lock and sock talk tens, and you're just like keeping 'em limber, keeping 'em [00:10:00] moving. Who cares what they do in the combine? If their numbers are terrible, they won't run. Mm-hmm. Or they're not gonna throw, or they're not gonna do whatever.

Like you have so many more luxuries there and that is all about, Hey, can we dial this one or two test saying, your agent thinks you wanna go do A, B, and C. Let's get that prepped and let's talk about strategy and technique for the five, ten five or whatever we're gonna do. Practice this a few times, then.

Get out there with a good wall warm up and a good activation routine and like you're totally gone. Other guys, it is completely different and this may be something unique to their sleep or maybe a movement pattern issue, or could be they spend a lot more time with the chiros and the physios and uh, there's that nagging Achilles thing, so it's like all over the board, like what is their biggest thing?

Focus on that for the six to eight weeks. We have 'em. If we have that sometimes we had four weeks. She's like, what are you gonna do? Mm-hmm. With that? Yeah. So, um, find the biggest performance anchor and try to remove it was our overall philosophy or minimum. I love that.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And that's one of the things I learned [00:11:00] from your, your podcast is kind of that, uh, your three eyes framework, right?

Like the investigate, interpret it and, and intervene. You kind of just outlined that. Exactly with what you do. And I think one of the things that goes unsaid too often in human performance is, is communication. And it's communication with the person, but it's also the team around it and, and everybody communicating.

Um, can, can you also take that framework for us and kind of give us a, you gave it to us essentially with a, with a high end athlete, with just a regular person in life and performance and how you would, would do that from a performance standpoint.

Andy Galpin: Yeah. It's the exact same thing We coach. Tons of regular people, and it is the exact same process.

So number one, you figure out what is that performance anchor, what that could look like in a regular person example. It might be something, I might frame it this way. What is the biggest thing holding you back? Mm-hmm. What is the thing you care the most about? What do you suck the most out? What's the biggest drain of your health right now?

However that framing comes to you. Yep. And all, all I [00:12:00] wanna do is fix that. Everything else goes away. So I don't care if, if you, if you're 14% body fat and you're looking to carve that extra six pounds off, like I don't not even have the discussion if at the same time we are having chronic neck pain or at the same time we, we know that, uh, we're just a eating poorly.

We know that, you know, fill in the blank with all these things you might routinely hear. Right? So if one of those things is, if you put on a scoring system and you said one outta 10. If you've got anything that's a three or blow.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah.

Andy Galpin: That's all we're doing. Like nothing else gets to have, you can do it, you can work out and you can still do other stuff, but I'm not gonna go outta my way to write a an incredibly in-depth training program.

We're not doing some of this more advanced stuff there, because it actually ends up, for most people, if you tug on too many strings mm-hmm. Nothing gets done. Yeah. And so you end up being like, man, I spent all this money. I focused, I dieted hard, I did all this stuff and then that big thing I cared about didn't get better.

Well, it didn't get better 'cause you [00:13:00] actually didn't go full force into that. Mm-hmm. If all you did was work on neck pain, or all you did was focus on movement, or all you did was your breath work or whatever, the thing that we're working on is for six months, almost everyone will get better. It's the fact that you go 60% into it.

'cause then you're also trying to do A, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and there's just too much. There's too much in this space, right? And so you end up in this maze of mediocrity because you do a bunch of different things a little bit. But not enough to induce adaptation. So that would be something where I would say, like, again, remember, let's stay focused on what our big target is, and the, the way we'll set this up a lot of times is saying like, you know, if I gave you a million dollars to get X done in six months, could you do it if I give you $20 million?

Mm-hmm. The vast majority of people could, could you would just like stop doing everything in your life, right? Yeah. Yeah. And like you would get there, but it's just not enough of a pain to people. Mm-hmm. Right away to make that change. So that the same exact framing, we just changed examples a little bit.

Dr. Kevin Christie: [00:14:00] Yeah, no, it makes sense. And we see it in our, in our clinics, a lot of times people will also try to overtreat, right? They may, um, they may have something going on, let's call it the neck pain thing, and then they'll, I. The, the provider will go, you know, throwing the kitchen sink at 'em every visit, and you, you, you could probably just focus on one or two things and get that solved and then go from there with it.

Yeah. But obviously we, I think people are, uh, always, uh, impatient with it. And I think that's something that I've been excited to see, uh, over the years of my 20 years in the. Let's call it the performance, but in the health and fitness realm is, I think, you know, because of guys like you and podcasts that are out there that are really informative with some other experts as well, is people are starting to realize that, um, fitness, I.

Should not be something that you just go into and you are overloaded constantly with a bunch of stuff. And, and there should not be a high injury rate, uh, to that. And I know that there's still a lot of [00:15:00] work to be done in that field of making sure that we help people perform in their, in their world without getting them, you know, hurt.

What's exciting you the most, uh, around that aspect of 'cause, because that's the problem, right? Is like. We can push someone to perform, but if you get 'em hurt, then that's not human performance anymore. Right. I mean, and it's a fine line and we all know it, but what are some of the things you're excited about in re regard to being able to push the envelope in envelope in people's lives without the chronic, um, overuse injuries We're seeing a lot of times.

Andy Galpin: Yeah. There's a lot of ways I could take that. Mm-hmm. Uh, question. Um, what we have right now is. A beautiful problem of human sensor. And so what I mean by that is there is more and more technology available for wearables. We'll just call it that people are familiar with that stuff, which is, uh, good and bad.

And so the reality is that allows us to monitor, measure things [00:16:00] more daily. I can get feedback sometimes instantaneously so I can get a real time data feedback. So because of that, I can actually push people sometimes a lot harder. I. Because I don't have to wait for six weeks to see if it worked or not.

I can wait six minutes or six seconds, or I can see it in real time. And so that allows us to, to sneak around some things. At the same time though, you have an entire downside of all that, um, which, which I could spend a lot of time talking about. And so it does allow us to, if you wanna spend a lot of effort, a lot of money, and a lot of time, we can push the pace a little bit.

We have several of our professional athletes that we. We track and measure and monitor every single day. We have the ability to predict performance. We can get really sharp. Um, and these are names that every one of you would recognize. And because we're, and that's how we can get away with it. And you're just like, wow, is this person breaking records and all these things.

And you're like, well, 'cause we can push some of these things. But the chasm between that and [00:17:00] just like throwing a, a wearable on the average person. Is, is you're not gonna get there. In fact, you're probably gonna go in the wrong direction because you will push too much and break. And so it's one of those things where like if you have the real aptitude for it and you wanna go all in and it's a lot of money and a lot of time and all that stuff, then we can actually do things better then we have been able to do in the past.

Technology can be helpful, but for many people you might actually be better doing the opposite. Putting it all away, not tracking anything, and just getting more in tune with what your physiology and your body are telling you. Uh, we have run millions and millions of data points for recovery, for readiness, for things like that.

And almost nothing out predicts your own perceived how you feel. Yeah. And so it's one of those things where it's like 80 20 principle. The vast majority of people do a tiny amount of things, and you're gonna get 90 per 80 to 90% of the way there. Now some people we're, we are willing to spend millions of dollars per year to get that last couple percent.

Mm-hmm. That's what they do. That's what they're after. That's what their [00:18:00] goals are. Fine. But for most people it's probably like, actually ditch all of it. Don't even go like halfway in. That's the worst. Like kinda like the old boxing analogy, like, be all the way in or be all the way out. That middle ground is where you're gonna spend money, get frustrated, maybe go the wrong direction and such.

Um, so maybe just ditch all that.

Dr. Kevin Christie: No, it makes sense. And let, let's say that person, this is a regular person now, um, you know, they're on a really good training program. They're, they're doing well. They're doing the things right. Um, I know, I, I believe you discussed, uh, oftentimes rehabilitation and return to performance.

And let's say they, they've had an injury, they're, they're on the right track. They're co-managing with, with performance and on the health side of things. Uh, what are some of the things you've noticed that those folks have fared the best when co-managing with say, a PT or a chiropractor or someone like that that's doing more on the medicine side of it, uh, you know, really co-managing with a performance specialist like yourself, who are some of those collaborations that work really well for that [00:19:00] person?

Andy Galpin: You have to actually understand what you're trying to do, which is a funny thing to say. But in the case of return to injury, the chiro, the athletic trainer, the, the orthopedic mm-hmm. Specialists, they're all gonna actually define return differently. Yes, they are. And so that is step number one, making sure if we're gonna co-manage this.

So even if it's just between just you and patient or whatever. Yeah. How are we defining that? Right. So I'll give you a good example. My dad just had both of his knees replaced, and according to the orthopedic surgeon. He's a hundred percent both of them.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Galpin: Right. And he's like mm-hmm. One barely moves and the other one is like maybe 80%, but the orthopedics surgeon is like, all my markers are back to a hundred percent.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Andy Galpin: I mean, you, you know, anyone listening will know exactly what I'm talking about, right? Yeah. The, the, the strength coach is gonna say that differently. The, the person is gonna, so it's just making sure you're on the same page with like, what are you looking for? And ideally what I'm saying is by same page is before the incident.

So [00:20:00] what is your ideal thing? What is this range of motion? Is this a functional test? Is this an actual direct, say performance test? Is this a measure like ultrasound or we're looking for fasci length or scar tissue, or are we using something like springbok and we're looking at actual muscle size of every individual muscle?

Is it a functional test? Is it a blood test? Like what are we actually defining as objective and subjective? 100%. Because if not, when these groups are generally arguing or fighting, it's because they're not measuring or caring about the same thing. Yeah. And that's where it's like, oh, he is back. No, he's not.

I'm seeing the signs. And you're like, you're not even arguing the same thing. Like you're arguing different metrics and those metrics aren't necessarily 100% correlated. So that would be the biggest key of saying like, how are we defining it? Maybe it is three things, maybe it's two things. Or you just acknowledging from my perspective, he's back a hundred percent, now it's time to turn him over to Doc.

Yeah. You know, and now you gotta listen to the, the, at, the, at is, the ATC is gonna say that's a different number than the chiro. And that's fine. But you as a patient or you as a [00:21:00] person on the backend team say, Hey look, this is what I care about. That person cares about that. So that's why they're saying that, um, that, that, that's the only way you can go about it.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And in my history working with, uh, performance coaches like yourself is a lot of times I, 'cause we don't have performance coaching per se in our clinic. Yeah. And we have a lot of collaborations with certain experts and, and, and, and I'm in an affluent area, which does help because a lot of 'em do have someone in their corner to, to take that performance.

And a lot of times I'll tell 'em like, look, we've gotten you now. To where you can go to the performance coach. Yeah. And they can take over and a lot of times they're already working with that coach before that point. But it's kind of like co-managing an injury. 'cause I think there's obviously a lot of great things that you can do with an injured person as well that helps out, uh, from the health standpoint.

But let's say now they are. Cleared clinically with that Achilles issue, not surgery, but let's, let's call it Achilles osis. Like, look, yeah, you can go and do this stuff now. You gotta get to that point. You're not ready to perform [00:22:00] on the field like you were before, but you're ready to perform in the, in the training facility to really get to that next level.

And that's some of the language we've used to let them know, like you can kind of push that there and have also communication with that, uh, performance coach. And then that kind of segues through my. My next point, which I think is a kinda a loaded topic there, but, um, you know, how do you balance pushing an athlete really at that point where they've gotten the, they, they're, they're overcome that injury, right?

Like they are, you're feel, you, you're looking at what they're doing. They're looking good. The doctors, you know, giving them clearance, they're, they're good. But they're not trusting it yet. Like they're just not really there in the, in the head space there. What are, what are some of the things that you recognize with that and some of the things that you need to do with that athlete or that average Joe to get them to the, the, the trust factor of their body?

Andy Galpin: Yeah, that's a, that's a good question. It's different for everybody, but where we would start with would be, this is where [00:23:00] objective testing matters. So if you can look at something where they're just not, not, not trusting that Achilles, right. Even if it's not blown, if it is just. Tendinopathy or whatever.

Mm-hmm. Great. Well, do we have ultrasound imaging of fasci lane penetration angle?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Andy Galpin: Do we have spring block where we can look at this is the size of your gastroc and your Achilles and your, so on and so forth. And we can look and say, Hey, look, here are the numbers before, here's the numbers on your healthy side.

Like, we're in a really good spot here. Um, do we have force plate data? Do we have, again, maybe it's goniometry and we're just looking at range of motion and maybe it's, uh. You know, full body range of motion. It's like, look, this is what you look like when you stand on one leg. This is what you look like when you're a split squat.

Even if they're not like an athlete, like you're gonna test the Achilles in different functional movements, right? We're not seeing anything that says this is bad. So you're back there, this like, you gotta trust this thing a little bit and then you put 'em into that risk thing. So you know, in that case, maybe it's single leg hops or it's a little bit elevated.

Dorsiflexion plan, effect, [00:24:00] whatever the case is, where it's like a little bit risk, but it's below, it's at their comfort zone. And so generally with pain de desensitization, it would be the same thing. So like you wanna walk up to that line and say, just below it and then, you know, slightly push that line up.

Well this case is not pain, but it is mental apprehension. Same thing. We walked you right up to there. Right? We got you to a three out of 10. Now we're gonna go three and a half outta 10. Now we're. So like, it's fine. See, it's responding, the metrics are there, you're not feeling any different. Like, and then just continue to re and force that story would be our approach.

So making sure, but if you don't have any objective data, you can survive.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Andy Galpin: Again, what do you have? Can you, do you have go geometry? Do you have, you know, knee over toe? Okay, we're three inches over, see this is where we were before. Or take a picture, whatever you have there. But to show them that, um, the reason I come back to that is just because in my experience.

When you say something as a, uh, care provider and you're like, oh, I'm telling you, it's good. Yeah. And if someone has doubt like you, you can't [00:25:00] overcome that. Yeah. When you have objective imagery, you'd be like, I, I can't fake an ultrasound. Mm-hmm. Like, I can't fake an image. Like I had nothing to do with this, and I couldn't call the technician and be like, make it 3% higher in the ation, and go like, you, you can't do that.

And so you're like, look, it's not me. I'm not trying to sell you anything. This is what the objective data are showing you. Mm-hmm. And. This is why we're good here. So that would be the, the angle I would take personally.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And I know it's probably a lot of communication. Every athlete's a little bit different.

I'm sure some doesn't bother them at all and they're ready to get back in it. And then the other ones, it's, it's a little challenging, just like I'm sure you deal with some athletes who are healthy and some have a mindset of really pushing it hard in, in training and others don't. And I'm sure you have to navigate that mindset as well.

Is that correct? Yes, sir. Yeah. Is that getting better over the years with that? I'm sure. Yeah. It's, uh, it's, it's tricky. Um, now, IIK kind of a question. One of the things I recommend to a lot of our listeners, which are mostly, uh, chiropractors, [00:26:00] PTs, things like that, um, physical therapists is, you know, communicating with the performance coach, right?

So we get a lot of patients come in. I have some connections with performance coaches, but then we get, sometimes we're the. You know, the, the, the patient comes in with a particular injury and they have someone, and sometimes it's a baseball specific guy. Sometimes it's, you know, running coach, they, they run marathons.

We kind of, we go out of our way to try to reach out to that coach and, uh, the, the training coach there and, and have that conversation with them. Um, what are some of the recommendations you would give a, a chiropractor or a physical therapist on. Communication with you. Right? What are some of the things that you want to know, uh, or is there a type of cadence you want to have communication over a period of time?

Just some of the things there that can help out our, our doctors listening. 'cause sometimes what happens is they don't know any better. The chiropractor, the pt, they don't know any better. And I've, and I've, I've fallen victim to that before I, I remember a colleague had [00:27:00] emailed a A an NFL strength. Coach, the, the director of strength and gave him this like, laundry list of exercises he should be doing for the athlete that didn't go over so well, as you can imagine.

Mm-hmm. Uh, a chiropractor telling, uh, the, the head strength coach for the team, what to do on rehab, or not a rehab, but on strength. So what are some of the things that you would, you would recommend?

Andy Galpin: Yeah, that's a, another really tough one. Uh, we generally by default try to have weekly meetings. Good. Now that doesn't always happen.

Sometimes that's monthly and sometimes it's not.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Andy Galpin: Right. Depends on the individual. It depends on how complex, depends on what time of the season it's in. And it depends on their support staff. Right. And so say if I'm low man on the totem pole, you just do what you can do. Right. If I'm a high man on the totem pole, I'm gonna ask for that.

Right. Everybody needs to be involved. Once a week, and if you're somewhere in the middle, like you kinda do the best you can. Mm-hmm. Um, sometimes that weekly check-in is [00:28:00] super simple. We've done this in the past where that weekly check-in is just a bullet point, three to five bullet points. Mm-hmm. And we use Slack or we use, um, ideally not like group text, but sometimes that happens.

Emails also a possibility. We have other software where we use, where everyone's kind of in the same. Group that would be ideal. Sometimes we use a quick video check-in, so we'll just film a video like, Hey, so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And everyone else does that too. And we're like, okay, that's on the same page.

Um, sometimes we have weekly or at minimum monthly reports. And so what this means is we have our three, uh, performance anchors that the whole staff has agreed upon, and then we're gonna directly measure, monitor, and update based on those. And so we've got, so maybe a, a team where you've got, uh, let's say you've got that Achilles injury going on.

Then you also are working on, uh, nutrition and you're working on sleep. And so you might say, okay, great. Um, the, the dietician will give you the monthly update. Alright, this is what we've done for food. Our compliance was at 70%. Uh, we know we miss these [00:29:00] check-ins, blah, blah, blah. You know, we expect to be at 75%.

So let's all make sure we're just giving a slight nudge. We don't need to overkill it, we just need to get up a little bit of percent. Okay, great. Um, or the opposite, like catastrophic. Hey, really tough month, everybody, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, okay. Whole shift, whole team kind of shifts. 'cause we know if you're not eating at all, well, nothing anyone else is doing or whatever the case is.

Maybe the sleep person said, we've identified that these three metrics are the most predictive of recovery or what whatnot for this particular person. Um, here's the update. Where we've been here, where we were last month, here's the action steps we took and here's what we think we wanna change. Something like that.

So the same thing from the, the, the pain management. All right? Pain is, was that a self-reported, you know, four outta 10, we're down to three outta 10, we're moving. We've had these significant climbs, these significant, um, and this is what we think we wanna do. It's really three to five bullet points. Right.

And, but it's an objective, it's the same thing consistent. And so we'll also usually make charts and figures [00:30:00] mm-hmm. Of, you know, just very basic booms. It's like, so everyone can see, okay, like here's the three or four metrics that all of us are tracking and like, this is what it's doing this week, this month we're all, we're heading the same.

You know, it's like nothing is a straight line down or a straight line up, uh, in this stuff. And so everyone can kind of see that and we can start to see, man, we've really plateaued. Or Hey, you plateaued, but we're still moving over here, so don't worry about it. Like physiology can only do so much at once and, and you're at a seven outta 10, but we're at a three outta 10 on these other ones.

So we're just gonna continue to push and not over overwhelm her or him because we're still making great progress in these bigger areas. So something like that, um, it also then makes it really easy to come back as a group and say, Hey, look, you know, she's only got time for so many appointments per week, and so many things.

And I know everyone thinks that their area is the most important. When you have those metrics and you're tracking 'em, it's an easy conversation. Hey, like, I know you want five more sessions in the clinic this week, but we're at a eight, at a [00:31:00] 10 on that Achilles, and we're at a two outta 10 on the on, on, you know, maximum strength.

So we're gonna keep you at two appointments per week, and then we're gonna put the rest of that time, like physical time in the weight room because we're just way lagging in that area. And so it just becomes impossible for the whole person. It's go, no, like one time we gotta be in here five days or whatever the case is and you're just like, look, I know, I know strength coach, you wanna have 'em six days a week.

But the reality of it is the mental health specialist says like, we're making major, you know, regressions right now and like we need to get, that's the bigger performance anchor right now. Okay. I mean, so whatever the team is comprised of, when you have something like that, it just becomes really inarguable of who gets priority at what point and what phases of the season or life.

For non-athletes, it's the same thing.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Love it. And so, you know, so far we've talked a lot about, uh, you know, the type of team members involved in a, in a person's performance. We've talked about, obviously, some of the [00:32:00] technologies. Give us a little bit of an overview of, of what's going on here at Parker University's, uh, human Performance Center.

What are some of the cool technologies gonna have? What are some maybe the specialists you're gonna have in there? Just give us a little bit of a, an overview. I'd love to hear it.

Andy Galpin: Yeah. So the. Center itself is going, as I mentioned earlier, it's very large. Mm-hmm. Over 60,000 square feet and it's brand new, it's set of construction and it's gonna be future proof.

Yeah. So it's, it's not gonna be your classic weight room. It's not a classic, uh, clinic. We already have a lot of those at Parker. So you can come in and get treated to your leisure. It's everything from, call it 50%. For research. So we will have, uh, wet labs in there. So we able to do blood testing and stool analysis and things like that.

That'll come with the, uh, a classic biochemistry setup. But then we're gonna have an extremely large track, probably 40 plus meters long, that has force plates on the whole thing. We're gonna have a very in-depth weight room, of course, and, and highly sensitive cameras with motion capture. [00:33:00] So we can do kinetics and kinematics on people without attaching any markers or wires to them, just based on the camera setup that we have going on.

Um, we'll have all the fancy metabolic carts and we'll have a really, really advanced environmental chamber in there that allows us to exercise any altitude we want within seconds. Pressure. We have hyperbaric, we have a lot of our brain enhancement technology. So we have a brain, uh, performance center there.

So, not injury, not TBIs, not concussion, but this is taking normal healthy brains and helping you perform at your cognitive, uh, and functional best and so on and so forth. So we've got biomechanics and exercise physiology and biochemistry and strength conditioning. Um, there'll be mental health and, and sports psychology and focus.

Um, so these are, again, not, I have depression, anxiety. This is. Working on true sports psychology from a good to great perspective. We have a lot of sleep technology in there. We'll have a, uh, probably a nutrition component and a lab and an actual kitchen. Um, [00:34:00] there'll be a theater for clinics and, and so on and so forth.

So all that is, is there, it'll be, again, a big chunk of it dedicated to research, but then a big chunk of it will be dedicated, uh, to, to community service. So if you're in the Dallas. Fort Worth area and you want to come in and use the services and, you know, pay and get testing done and get a VO two max testing done, or a springbok analysis or whatever the case in, people will be able to pay for that.

So it'll be a little bit of a clinic in there. And then we have a large, uh, visitor center that is a, like a living museum that's in a, an homage to human performance and adaptability and resilience. So this would be for kids in middle schools and elementary schools and stuff to be able to, it's interactive and it's VR and lots of cool technology.

And so we're trying to foster the next generation of human health performance by starting with, you know, kids in middle schoolers and high schoolers and you know, adult. So if they want to come in. So it's a little bit like a nasa, um, you know, kind of a thing where you come in and see, touch, feel, and experience [00:35:00] some pretty cool stuff.

So, uh, that's the general big plan.

Dr. Kevin Christie: That's great. So obviously the research is, I'm, I'm imagine it's gonna be a destination for some athletes and such. Oh yeah. That'll fly in and, and get stuff done. Is there gonna be an educational component for trainers, doctors come in, learn some of those stuff that you guys are doing there, or,

Andy Galpin: well, in the sense we're gonna have, first and foremost, for our students.

Yep. So, you know, we've got our ro but then we have our strength in human performance. Yep. We have an undergrad program as well as a grad program. We have in person and we have remote. And so those in person course are gonna have a pretty good experience in that center, working in there and being involved in there.

Um, and then again, we will have that, uh, per that theater capabilities. So we intend to host clinics and conferences and seminars and stuff like that. I don't think we're gonna do a lot of. You know, like specific professional development stuff. Yeah. Outside of those things within it, but mm-hmm. You know, who knows if we have a good idea or a good proposal come up, we, [00:36:00] we would certainly listen to

Dr. Kevin Christie: it.

Wow. It's awesome. It's, it's really cool to see the, the blending of, again, health and and performance. And then just as obviously the technology's coming along, it's, it's pretty cool what we can do. So excited to see that come about. Is there a estimated, uh, open timeframe? I know that's a, a loaded question, but Yeah.

Andy Galpin: Not right now. Yep. Perfect. Construction like this, at this scale with it's. Yeah,

Dr. Kevin Christie: it's a, it's a biggie for sure. Yeah.

Andy Galpin: You never know. So it's making a lot of really good progress. Right now. We're super happy with the timeline, but we'll see. And if, depending on who you ask mm-hmm. You'll get a totally different

Dr. Kevin Christie: answer on that.

Yeah. Even if you just build out, I built out my clinic about 12 years ago, and it's a small, you know, 3000 square feet and it's. Like it is, it's always a timeline, so, yeah. But, uh, cool. Well, hey, I really appreciate your, your expertise and time today. This has been awesome and excited to, uh, continue to collaborate with Parker in any way we can here and we've done a lot with Parker over the years, and so, [00:37:00] um, I'm appreciative of them connecting you and I, and thanks for all the work you're doing for your profession, for athletes and regular people and, and even our profession.

So thank you.

Andy Galpin: Yeah, man. It's a pleasure and an honor and I really appreciate you giving us opportunity to talk about. What's going down at Parker University. So

Dr. Kevin Christie: thanks a lot. Absolutely. And is there any, just any other way they can find you, your podcast or any other aspects that they wanna reach out and learn more about what you're doing outside of Parker?

Andy Galpin: Yeah. Even if they wanna reach out about Parker feel, please feel free to do that. Um, Instagram and, and Twitter are, you know, science communication for me. So Dr. Andy Galpin on the podcast, season two is up, so you got 20, 22 episodes or so to go back on and catch up on. Those are the easiest places by far.

But if there's, if there's some interest in doing something related, you know, to what we're doing at Parker, that is, like I said, our, our top tier priority. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then specifically what I would like to mention is we have a lot, uh, things that we didn't get into Yep. For chiropractors and so [00:38:00] this is, uh, sleep related testing.

Blood related testing for high performance, and we have done a lot in the chiro world. We're working with a ton of chiropractors, so if you're listening and you're interested in, in offering those services, we can perform full. FDA approved medical sleep studies on people with a tiny, tiny device in their home for very, very cheap.

Um, we can do a lot of cool stuff there. So we'd love to talk to any chiros out there that are interested in offering those services or utilizing things like that in their clinic. Um, we could set you up and get you rolling on that and, and we're excited to do so, so happy to move forward on those if, if anyone's interested.

Perfect. And then, and how would they find out more about that? Is that through Parker? Um, those are not through Parker, those are through me, my sleep companies and my, our blood work companies. Absolute Rest and Vitality Blueprint. But they can just reach out to me directly and I'd be happy to put them in contact with the right person.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Okay, good. Great. Absolutely.

Andy Galpin: Yeah. Andy galpin.com is.

There's a link to submit a [00:39:00] question or whatever on my website so you can get me there. Awesome. Thanks Doc. I really appreciate your time today. Alright, thank you.