Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc.

We Don't Make this Stuff Up

Here's what people are saying about the Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates.

"You do work here!  I have never felt that tired after training.  No practice or game compares to the hard work you do at the Physical Performance Center.  The machine is the worst (Woodway Force Treadmill)!"

- Kevin Jeter, Running Back Forestview High School (2nd in Big South Rushing 2009 with 120.4 yard per game)

"Great equipment, highly professional staff, like kids; love their work! I work out out at the facility myself."

-Ron Bray, Head Men's Basketball Coach, Hunter Huss High School

"We [the Gastonia Grizzlies] are very excited to be working with Gaston Rehab Associates and the Physical Performance Center this year.  We feel it is the perfect fit for our college players to stay healthy and strong during the season." 

-Jesse Cole, General Manager, Gastonia Grizzlies

"So far the response has been overwhelming for the PPC performance training clinics and I believe if you ask anyone involved they will tell you that if you want to take your game to the next level that this is the place to be.  I hope that each of you will consider this program in preparation for your next season, whether that be your recreation league, middle school, high school or college pursuit or just maintaining healthy lifestyles and injury prevention.  PPC has put their money where their mouth is and athletes are already seeing results and I hope you will too."

- Trina Sharpe...Director/Coach of Sports Academy Inc.

You don't have to take our word for what we do. These folks are seeing the results of what research based strength, speed, and overall conditioning can do for you and for your performance.

If you are ready to take your game to the next level, call us today at (704) 864-4424 (Gastonia) or (704) 768-1013 (Statesville/Lake Norman area). The first session is always free so you have nothing to lose!

The Physical Performance Center in Gaston Gazette

The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates was highlighted in a business spotlight in the Gaston Gazette on 8/27/09.

Our goal is to provide a service to the community in order to make people healthy, keep them active, and help prevent chronic conditions caused by obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

If you are interested in learning more about our medical based fitness programs, please contact our Gastonia office at (704) 768-1013 or our Statesville office at (704) 768-1013.

Digital Trooper for Web Site Design

Anyone needing a new web site or looking for a host for their web site needs to contact Sean Stewart with Digital Trooper.

Contact information is: 

Mobile: +1 704 877 1466
Email: sstewart@digitaltrooper.com


 USA: 704 257 4478 Fax: 1 866 910 3713
 South Africa: 0861 0 66774 Fax: 0866 548 553

Web: www.digitaltrooper.com

Support: support@digitaltrooper.com

He is the person who helped to design our web site a few years back and has to this day, been super responsive to all of our needs. Anytime I need something done or have a question about how I can do something he gets right back to me and always has an answer for me.

Brian Boyle, DPT on Ballot for APTA PPS election

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Private Practice Section (PPS) election ballot was announced recently. The vote will take place at the 2009 National Conference in Colorado Springs, CO.

Dr. Brian Boyle, DPT of Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. is on the ballot for the position of Nominating Committee.

Should we be worried about the economy?

As a business owner, I am left to face the question, how will the economy effect my business? This is no simple question. We rely on clients who need physical therapy, massage therapy, sports training, and so on to have the ability to pay for the services we provide.We also largely rely on the insurance companies to be around another day to pay for the services we provide that are covered by their plans. We rely on our clients to have money to fill their gas tanks to be able to get to our office in order for us to provide our services. The one thing we don't rely on however is for someone to bail us out.

I am amazed and almost outraged at the current CEO's that are leading these companies that are being bailed out by the Federal Government. I guess business sense goes out the window when greed and ego take over. Maybe I am glad I didn't spend another $80,000 on an MBA from a high profile institution to be lumped into the same category as some of these phonies. Leaders are reliable, they are accounable, they take responsibility for their actions, they accept blame and ask for apologizes when they have done something wrong. They don't hide behind lawyers, golden parachutes, and other cronies good at fixing books like cowards. My favorite quote was made by one executives wife after the Enron debacle. She said, "We are the laughing stock of the Country Club."  And rightfully she and her husband should have been.

I have many reasons to wake up every morning and make it into work. I know that I have 12 employees and a business partner that rely on me to help keep the company running. I have a vested interest in seeing that our company can sustain itself another day. I have bills to pay and a family to take care of. I have motivation to avoid failure because I want to avoid being embarrassed in the community which has been so great to us and for which we are a large part of. But most importantly because I have a sense of pride in what I do. Where has that gone for these CEO's of major corporations that make decisions that effect millions of peoples lives. Has their ego gone too big to make them believe they are invinsible? Or are the incentives there no matter what so that they don't feel like they need to work to make ends meet? I have never understood the "golden parachute?" Can anyone tell me what incentive there is to make the right decision when a CEO has a couple a million dollar windfall no matter what the outcome?

I propose a change. How about the board of directors for these large corporations making a clause in there that the "golden parachute" will become the company's payroll for the remaining employees if the company ceases to remain functional based on a decision that the CEO makes. That may increase accountability and get their attention when making decisions based purely on greed rather than what is best for the longevity of the business. I can hear it now,  But who will want such a job? Companies need these high profile CEO's to come take charge and they may not want the job if there was such a clause? If every corporation put in such a clause I would highly doubt that these celebrity CEO's would all crawl under a rock and pout. They would suck it up, act like adults and actually have to work to earn their money like the rest of us while being held accountable for their decisions.

How will the economy effect us? I don't know, but I sure hope that we are not effected because our clients fell victim to some leader-want-to-be at the helm of their ship. Let's bring accountability back to life and demand it from those around us.

Gaston Rehab Associates in Charlotte Observer

Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. was in the Charlotte Observer today. Well sort of. I say "sort of" because I am not sure that the article, at least the title, is exactly representative of what we do and who we are.

I was contacted about doing a story in how we, Gaston Rehab Associates, were dealing with the economy and if there were changes that we had seen in our own business. The reporter and I talked about the many facets of our business and I laid out 3 scenarios in which our business has changed and in which it is growing. While she did mention all three, working with other businesses and opening a 3rd location seemed to fall to the wayside.

The tagline reads "Trainer turns pain into growth" which immediately wanted to make me gag. If you have ever gotten a strange feeling in your stomach after someone has said something about you, you know what I mean. Almost like having a piece of hair that isn't yours in your salad. It doesn't necessarily have to ruin the whole meal, but it often does.

Having gone to school for 7 years to finish with a doctorate in physical therapy and getting labeled as a "trainer" kind of made me feel uneasy, to say the least. Fortunately if you read the rest of the article it does state physical therapist in the description which made it better and overall it was well written in a positive light. But what am I afraid of and why did I feel uneasy?

If I could set the record straight in my own correction column for the Observer I would have written the tagline as "Therapist turns pain into profit."  I would have then started with Brian Boyle is a business owner and a physical therapist and one of the many services provided by Boyle and the staff at Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. is on-line personal training for clients who do not have a skilled need for therapy.

I have advanced knowledge in strength and conditioning outside of physical therapy and use my medical background to develop the human body. I have always said to clients, if I can work with someone after they have had an injury or surgery and get them back from their lowest point, imagine what we can do with someone that is not hurt.  Innovation is key in our industry (health care and fitness/wellness) and anything we can do to help others while getting paid is business. I know I may catch some grief from the idealists in the PT world who say any correlation between physical therapists and personal trainers is bad publicity however is it really all that bad? At least people know what "trainers" do while we still battle with how we describe the multiple levels of who we are and what we do as physical therapists. 

KPAC In Charlotte Observer

Kristie Phillips-Bannister was highlighted in the Charlotte Observer Tuesday June 24th, 2008 for her dedication to the sport of gymnastics, her work with USA Gymnastics and for opening her new gymnasium. Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. is pleased to be opening our new office inside this state of the art facility and to have the privilege to be able to work with such a talented individual and her staff. Way to go Kristie!

Gaston Rehab Associates hits milestone!

Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. Physical Therapy and a Whole Lot More is proud to announce that we reached an important milestone in our business yesterday. On Wednesday April 2nd, 2008 we worked with our 1000th client in our Gastonia office. While we realize that many other providers reach this milestone much sooner within their first 4 years of business we have been successful in reaching this number by providing one on one service, the way it should be, and have not sacrificed quality in order to increase our bottom line. What it also means is that our business is more dynamic than just outpatient physical therapy and that our on-site ergonomics, health/wellness, and other related services have allowed us to grow the business at a very steady rate.

We look forward to meeting and working with the next 1000 people while continuing to work with all of our current and former clients.  We also welcome the opportunity to continue to provide a valuable resource to the community and thank you all for your support. Without you we would have never reached this important milestone!

The Founder's Dilemma

In the February 2008 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Noam Wasserrman wrote an article titled "The Founder's Dilemma."

Why do people start businesses? For the money and the chance to control their own companies, certainly. But new research from Harvard Business School professor Wasserman shows that those goals are largely incompatible. The author's studies indicate that a founder who gives up more equity to attract cofounders, new hires, and investors builds a more valuable company than one who parts with less equity. More often than not, however, those superior returns come from replacing the founder with a professional CEO more experienced with the needs of a growing company. This fundamental tension requires founders to make "rich" versus "king" trade-offs to maximize either their wealth or their control over the company. Founders seeking to remain in control (as John Gabbert of the furniture retailer Room & Board has done) would do well to restrict themselves to businesses where large amounts of capital aren't required and where they already have the skills and contacts they need. They may also want to wait until late in their careers, after they have developed broader management skills, before setting up shop. Entrepreneurs who focus on wealth, such as Jim Triandiflou, who founded Ockham Technologies, can make the leap sooner because they won't mind taking money from investors or depending on executives to manage their ventures. Such founders will often bring in new CEOs themselves and be more likely to work with their boards to develop new, post-succession roles for themselves.

As I read this I was happy to see that founders could attain both "rich" and "king" in businesses that did not require large amounts of capital and where they already have the skills and contacts they need. It should make one think though about having a succession plan in place no matter what stage of the game you are in.

Atlas Ergonomics free Software

Atlas Ergonomics announced 3/31/08:

In its ongoing mission to improve health and safety for office workers nationwide, Atlas Ergonomics announced today that it will make its web-based risk assessment and training software available free to U.S. organizations with 10,000 or more office employees. Atlas does ask that clients exclusively use its nationwide network of physical therapists, occupational therapists and other ergonomics service providers when on-site support is needed. However, no minimum level of service is required.

This is a huge step in the right direction since most employers will struggle to afford the price of ergonomic software for that many employees. Atlas does have a competitive price and value for smaller employers as well and they can still contact Atlas for services even if they do not have over 10,000 employees.