Transcription of Bodily Alignment #228
Dr. Lisa: My next guest is an individual who I have known both personally and professionally. She has been actually my doctor for a little while. This is Dr. Jacey Goddard who is a doctor of osteopathy at Freeport Osteopathic Health. She is a faculty preceptor at Maine Medical Center’s department of integrated medicine. She helped fixed almost pneumonia that I had earlier this fall. Thanks for coming to talk to me and thanks for fixing my lungs.
Dr. Jacey: Absolutely. I’m glad to be here.
Dr. Lisa: You do something that I find really quite fascinating. You help people almost realign their bodies so that they can more closely realign with their lives and their health and obtain a greater wellness by putting your hands in just the right places to put things back into alignment. Talk to me about that.
Dr. Jacey: That’s right. You actually said it maybe better than I would. We go to medical school and learn all the basics of medicine. In addition, when we go to osteopathic medical school, we learn how to use our hands to diagnose the bones, the muscles, the ligaments, the fascia, which is connected tissue of the body.
Beyond that, we actually learn to consider the organs, and the blood vessels, and the lymphatics and to try to help the body be in an optimal state so that things can flow and, like you said, things can be balanced and there isn’t too much tension in one part of the body or another.
Dr. Lisa: Guessing that when you chose to go to osteopathic medical school, it was a very conscious decision that there was something about that type of training that really resonated with you.
Dr. Jacey: That’s right. Actually, I would say that I stumbled across it because at the time I was weighing the decision to go to conventional medical school or maybe doing something more alternative, like naturopathic medicine, and I was interested in the concepts of Chinese medicine. It was actually the philosophy of osteopathy that really clinched it for me to make the decision.
That being that the philosophy looks at the structure and function of the person, that there’s a consideration of the whole person. Those kinds of concepts that just really resonated with me because I really felt I wanted to do what was going to help people, not just give them medicines and not really find the root of the problem.
I didn’t realized when I actually … I thought that the manipulation part might be a bonus, but I didn’t realize until I actually started learning some techniques. Actually, it was when somebody taught me that you can treat something like a sinus infection with your hands and to help the fluid strain. I actually had that treatment done on me. I was so blown away that I felt better within a few minutes that I really started to get excited and I wanted to be able to do that for people.
Dr. Lisa: That’s interesting because when I started doing acupuncture, one of the things that caused me to realize, “Hey, this really works.” Is actually using needles in the sinuses, and the knowledge that you don’t have to blast the sinuses with antibiotics that may or may not even work, because it may not even be a bacterial infection. But that you could somehow move things within the bones of the face, the hallows and the bones of the face and make people healthy again.
It’s interesting that the sinus is something that you found and I found as well. Also, when I was going through my training at Maine Medical Center, and I know that you precept with the integrated medicine program over there. There was a lot of work being done with babies who had been born and maybe they had had a traumatic escape through the birth canal and sometimes they needed to be realigned.
Also, with pregnant women who are having difficulties with their pelvises not quite being roomy enough. It was interesting because there was nothing I had to offer to these people. I didn’t have anything to offer these babies or these mothers, and then along came a very skilled osteopathic physician who was able to just do a little bit of this and a little bit of that and it really helped a lot.
Dr. Jacey: Yeah, and that’s actually one of the things that I think is underappreciated in osteopathic medicine. I think a lot of people don’t know that we can treat babies and that the treatment of babies is almost so gentle, you can’t really see much happening. I think a lot of people who haven’t seen it might be afraid that it’s hard on them or it could be dangerous to them. If you’ve ever seen someone treat a baby osteopathically, you pretty quickly find that babies start to just relax, their little fists open up and they respond so well because they are already pretty healthy.
Like you said, sometimes they had a tough passage through the birth canal and then there might be some tension in their neck that’s affecting their … It’s basically the nerves that affect the tongue and the swallowing mechanism. Those are some of the main things that we find in babies that have trouble latching and breastfeeding. It always breaks my heart when I meet someone that said, “Oh! I didn’t breastfeed because my baby wouldn’t latch.” That’s something that could very easily be treated.
Usually, just one or two visits. The earlier we see them, the better they respond. It’s just such … It’s so miraculous to me that something so simple and so gentle can have such a long lasting effect on their health. Similarly, with moms, to help prepare the birth canal and to help relax their body and optimize the structure of their pelvis so that the birth process goes easily.
Another thing that we can do is help sometimes, not always, depending on whether it’s right for the individual. Sometimes we can do a technique that, again, is very gentle, very non evasive to help a breach baby flip. Again, to me, that’s something that is so rewarding because it’s very gentle and it’s very safe and they can give that mother and that baby a normal birth process versus having to have a C-section.
Again, that’s something that people don’t know about, and I feel that just for the benefit of people to know that. It’s basically one of the reasons I was happy to be on the show because I think that’s important for people to know about.
Dr. Lisa: I’ve had patients too who … As children, who have had chronic ear infections and were put on antibiotic after antibiotic after antibiotic, or I’ve had patients with chronic headaches that were on very significant amounts of migraine medication. They’ve gone for osteopathic work and they haven’t … The kids didn’t need the tubes put in their ears, or the people with migraines didn’t need to keep taking their medicine.
There’s something interesting about the re-patterning that you’re able to do with people’s bodies so that they can be less impacted by these chronic problems.
Dr. Jacey: Definitely. Again, the pediatric population is one that I find … Doesn’t get the advantage of osteopathic manipulation that maybe the adults might … I’m not sure why that is. I suspect is lack of understanding of what we do and how gentle it is and how safe it is.
Babies or young kids with ear infections often respond very well to manipulation. They usually just need a few treatments to help loosen. It’s basically loosen up their neck and the base of their skull so that things can drain. It’s basically a very similar concept to the sinus issues.
Yes, absolutely with headaches or migraines. In my experience, a lot of what are termed migraines have a very large tension component. I think even the tension can contribute to what might be a vascular or blood vessel cause of a migraine. Patients respond very well to osteopathic treatment for headaches and migraines and it often prevents them from coming back. Usually, we can relieve a tension headache on the spot. I think more important is to try to prevent it from coming back and helping that person to have a less painful life really.
Dr. Lisa: In the time that I’ve spent coming to your office, I’ve enjoyed talking with you because you are open to all the different things that might contribute to someone’s life being off balance or someone’s body being off balance. You might give someone exercises to do when they go home. If they’re having issues with, maybe having neck pain after being at work for a certain number of hours. You’ll talk to them about bigger things such as, “How was your life feeling to you these days? How does this feel to you?”
I like that lot because so much of the time in medicine, we have a problem and we try to quick fix it, and you’re trying to really get to the underneath, the underbelly, the soft underbelly and work with that a little bit and give some solutions and be open minded as to what those solutions might be.
Dr. Jacey: Yes, definitely. It’s something that I’m constantly examining. Basically, how I’m taking care of my patients. I’m not sure, but I think perhaps not all osteopaths that do manipulation are quite as involved in digging deeper like I am. Sometimes I question it. I’m perhaps not an osteopathic manipulation purist.
Again, I am trying to find the cause of the problem and if it’s something they’re doing with posture at the computer which I find is increasingly common these days, or somebody that’s spending a lot of time in the car that’s putting a strain on their neck and back. Things like that. I feel like I’m doing a disservice if I’m not helping them to understand what’s causing the problem so that it’s prevented. I really don’t want to create a need for people to have to come to me. I’d rather really fix the problem or help them fix the problem.
I really like the idea of helping people to understand how to take care of themselves. I think sometimes people just want the quick fix, and it’s hard, and myself included. There are things that I need to do to manage my stress and check my posture and make sure I’m getting enough sleep and doing the things that are good for in my life.
Really, I think that that’s what makes us healthy is when we can learn how to really take good care of ourselves and prevent the problems down the road.
Dr. Lisa: There’s also some patients involved, not patients, like I am a patient. Some patients involved with allowing the body to heal itself. When I first went to see, I was going in for a knee issue and a shoulder issue and some of it was related to surgeries I had last year after my cancer diagnosis. More acutely, I was having a calf. It was something that I’d had long enough, so that if I was my own doctor, I might have prescribed antibiotics for myself.
Also, as my own doctor, I didn’t want to take antibiotics because I had this strong sense that it could be clear because it probably wasn’t a raging bacterial pneumonia. I went to see you for a few sessions and you really did help open up my rib cage so that my body could actually heal itself, as to breathe more deeply so that I could actually get the air to where it needed to go and the blood to where it needed to go. It took time, but it was worth it to me, because then I wasn’t left with the problems one gets associated with taking antibiotics unnecessarily.
It is patience. There’s some patience involved in this. How is that for you when you have to talk to people about the time it might to take to heal?
Dr. Jacey: Yeah, it does require patience. I think it’s good for us to practice patience because it’s really about feeling peace and not being pressured and not putting too much pressure on anyone and helping them to come to their own understanding of how to take care of themselves.
Really, again, like you were saying, if we hadn’t addressed that underlying issue, then you might have been left with a setup for another infection down the road. I think, really, it’s about helping people to understand better. I tend to talk to my patients a lot, because I feel it’s important to understand why we’re doing something. Why I’m doing it the way I’m doing it, and why I’m trying to engage the individual and doing their own part.
For example, a breathing technique to help to loosen up the rib cage or relax the body. I think that that comes from, really, the foundations of osteopathy. Dr. Andrew Taylor Still who basically discovered that the body is really already set up to heal itself and it just needs a little bit of help. If we can do that, it actually does help the body to do what it’s supposed to do in terms of blood flow and lymphatic flow and healing infections and things like that. I think education, I guess, would be the way that I deal with somebody who wants a real quick fix.
Dr. Lisa: What is the difference for people who are wondering between someone who has a D.O. degree or an osteopathic medical degree, and an M.D. degree, that would be in allopathic medical degree. What’s the difference in the training?
Dr. Jacey: In my understanding, it’s not that different. People who go to osteopathic medical school, just like people who go to a more conventional medical school have to have a four year college degree, then the medical school itself is also four years. The last two years are spent in clinical training. We learn the biochemistry, and we do anatomy dissections, and we do the pharmacology, and we do the histology.
Basically, it’s the same in terms of all the medical concepts. There’s an additional, usually, weekly osteopathic manipulation lecture and lab where you learn the background of a technique or an approach and then we go to a lab where you actually learn how to put your hands on your fellow, whatever, colleague, students. We learn to start to actually put your hands on people which I think that might be one difference that we end up with. We often feel a little bit more comfortable touching people just because we are strongly encouraged to touch each other when we go to medical school.
I think that the education is very similar. Obviously, I think there’s a normal variation amongst medical schools, all kinds of medical schools. I think there’s a variation. I think that the differences is that we get that manipulation part. We also get some of the osteopathic philosophy.
Frankly, it wasn’t as different as I thought when I ended up in medical school. I thought it would be more. I thought there would be a really strong emphasis on nutrition. I thought there might be some more alternative concepts introduced. Really, it wasn’t. It was actually pretty conventional standard medical school with the addition of the manipulation.
Dr. Lisa: Not all osteopathic physicians choose to practice osteopathic manipulative medicine. Some osteopathic physicians go on and get just standard training which enables them to become an internal medicine specialist or an orthopedic surgeon. You chose to do osteopathic manipulative medicine. Why did that call to you so much?
Dr. Jacey: That’s pretty easy. Again, it goes back to that … Really, those early days in medical school when I realized that I could really help somebody pretty quickly. It was so rewarding and so fulfilling. I think it really was about … I think it’s probably because of my own personal health struggles in my teens and growing up and finding that, really, there are a lot of medical problems that people have that doctors don’t know how to deal with. Having been looked at, “Well, you’re crazy. That problem is not real. There’s nothing that can be done about that.”
I found that incredibly frustrating, and I think that that’s basically one of the things that led me to the place where I am now where I love taking care of problems that nobody else can fix. I am so excited when somebody comes in and their doctors have told them that they think it’s all in their head and that there’s nothing that can be done.
I think it has to do with that for me personally. I love what I do because I really get to know my patients. I get to spend a little bit more time with them. I get to think medically. I get to be challenged to try to address different problems and try to think about problems in a new way. I feel really blessed to be doing what I’m doing because I really feel I’m actually helping people in a way that conventional medicine today doesn’t really get to the issue.
Dr. Lisa: With the way that you’ve chosen to practice medicine has been a little bit of a risk for you. You just opened up a new practice in Freeport, bright, beautiful, big windows, but it was a big move. You came down originally from a little bit further up in the state where you had been working with a family practice residency. You worked with another doctor in this area, and now you are in an office with your husband who is also an osteopathic physician. It’s a leap. You’re in charge of your own space. You’re in charge of your own practice. Tell me what that’s been like for you.
Dr. Jacey: Yeah. It really has been a challenge. I was in Bangor at the residency program at Eastern Maine Medical Center, family medicine residency. I’ve been there for 11 years and I just knew it was time to spread my wings. I really started reaching out and looking out.
Frankly, I wanted to get under somebody else’s wing. I really wanted somebody else to run the business. I really wanted somebody else to do the math and the numbers and the books and deal with the insurance, because it’s a really scary thing. Fortunately, when I took over the practice from another D.O. who was moving out of the area, they basically got me started.
It was a leap of faith, and it was really challenging. I think it was something that I needed to go through, and it’s worth it. I had a college student shadowing. We had a college student shadowing us yesterday and we were just talking about how it is to run your own business. He said, “Is it worth it?” I have to say, “Absolutely. It’s absolutely worth it.” Because I’m able to spend … If I really need to spend more time with somebody, I can.
Yeah, it’s a pain. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it’s complicated. You move your change of address and you’ve got a 10 page form you’ve got to fill out for Medicare. It’s, “This is crazy.” But it’s really worth it. When that person comes back and then they say, “My pain went from an eight to a two.” and they’re feeling they can get back to work again. It makes it all worthwhile.
It’s a learning process, and I think all of us osteopathic physicians in the State of Maine, there are a lot of us actually. I think we’re all feeling it. It’s a struggle. We’re not in it for the money, because if we were doing it for the money, we would absolutely be doing something else. It’s because I think we really feel that it’s good for our patients. It’s worth it.
Dr. Lisa: It’s been an interesting time in medicine. You and I both were trained around the same time and we’ve been in medicine around the same number of years. It doesn’t look the way it did when we first went to medical school. How has that felt to you?
Dr. Jacey: I guess it’s frustrating and it’s scary, but I keep thinking that. I hear it from our patients, it’s, “My doctors don’t spend time with me.” I try to say to them, “It’s not really your doctor’s fault. It’s because they work for a big company, and because somebody is paying the bills and they’ve got to see a certain number of patients to pay the bills. The patients feel like the doctors are the ones that don’t care. I don’t think that’s it.
I think probably across the country, physicians are very disenchanted and frustrated that they can’t really take care of the patients in the way they want to. I think it’s a system issue. It’s not each individual doctor is bad. It’s not that at all. I think most really care and most really want to help people.
I keep hoping that it just becomes more clear to patients and healthcare administrators, and maybe the government as an entirety, and the insurance companies that, really, if we can invest a little bit of time and help people understand how to take care of themselves. We won’t be putting out the fires. We won’t be spending the money on all the medications that are so expensive. We won’t have the need to be in the hospital as much.
Maybe when you think about it, there’s a lot of money to be made from the pharmaceutical industry and visits to the hospital. I guess I’m an i“dealist and I’m hopeful that somehow people are going to work to make that better as a whole.
Dr. Lisa: Jacey, how can people find out about the work that you do at the Freeport Osteopathic health practice that you run?
Dr. Jacey: We have our website, it’s relatively simply, but it does list what we do and what our training entailed and our board certification and things like that. It’s at www.freeportosteopathic.com. Again, there are a lot of us out there doing manipulation. Most of us have pretty busy practices, but I’m not here to advertise for myself. I’m really here because I think that I want people to know about osteopathy, because it’s something that can really help people.
Dr. Lisa: I encourage anyone who’s listening who hasn’t had a chance to experience osteopathic medicine to really look into it and consider whether it might be a good fit for them, because I certainly have found it has been a good fit for me and also for other patients that I’ve recommended it to.
Today, we’ve been speaking with Dr. Jacey Goddard who is a doctor of osteopathy at Freeport Osteopathic Health, and also a faculty preceptor at Maine Medical Center’s Department of Integrative Medicine.
I think you’ve represented your profession well, and I thank you for the work that you’re doing and for being here today.
Dr. Jacey: Thanks so much. I really had a fun time talking to you.
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Dr. Lisa: It’s always a pleasure to spend time with individuals who really understand the way that the body works and the joy of using the body in fun ways, like exercise. Today, we’re speaking with two individuals who are relatively new to Maine and doing something that I think is quite great. This is Tom Kropf and Rebecca Woll who run Shift Portland, which is a personal fitness facility on Market Street.
Tom received his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Loras College in Iowa, and a master’s degree from Rockford College outside Chicago. Originally from Nebraska, Tom played college football before coaching in the college ranks for many years following graduation.
Practice starting Shift Portland, Tom is responsible for the business and education of more than 65 trainers as personal training manager for the flagship location of Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York City. Tom is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. While not at the gym, Tom enjoys being outdoors running, biking, hiking, golfing or exploring.
Thanks for coming in Tom.
Tom: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: You also have with you your lively wife, Rebecca Woll. Rebecca holds a master’s degree from Columbia University in motor learning and control with a concentration on balance in adults 55 and older. She is a certified balance and mobility instructor for Fall Proof through the Center For Successful Aging at Cal State Fullerton.
Rebecca is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, with additional certifications in functional movement, nutrition and kettle bells. Previously, Rebecca managed the personal training department for Equinox Fitness Clubs, including flagship locations in New York City.
Rebecca holds a BA in dance and English from Connecticut College. Prior to her current focus, Rebecca was a professional modern dancer who continues to choreograph and teach throughout the New York and Portland Maine.
Thank you for coming in.
Rebecca: Thanks for having us.
Dr. Lisa: You guys have a lot of background in this area.
Tom: Yup.
Rebecca: We do.
Dr. Lisa: You’re clearly very passionate about the work that you do.
Rebecca: Yes, we absolutely are.
Dr. Lisa: I’m interested. Why Maine? One of you is from New York, one is from Nebraska. You lived in Brooklyn for 9 years, 10 years, but you’re here. You came here last summer. You got married, you settled down in our fair city.
Tom: Yeah, and thank goodness. The journey has been a longtime coming. It’s been quick and time since we’ve made the journey, I guess in August, when we moved up. From our standpoint, just being able to have a better lifestyle is really what the impetus was for us.
New York was great, we love a lot of things about it, but we wanted to go to a place where we could have an opportunity to build our business, an opportunity to have a lifestyle that was going to be more conducive to eventually raising a family and doing things along those lines.
Rebecca: We loved what we could find in Maine. We loved the integration of health in every day life. The fact that we can walk out our door and find a trail to go running or biking or walking on, and then go to work. We love the opportunities that Maine presents in terms of health. Everyone here is really focused on how can we improve our everyday lifestyle. How can we make wellness a part of that?
There’s a calm here that doesn’t exist in a lot of other places in the world, particularly in New York. Although, you can find places there as well. That’s really important to your mental health and a state of mind that will find a nice combination between physical and psychological integration. We really liked that wellness, that opportunity that we found here.
Dr. Lisa: Each of you came to exercise science from a slightly different direction. Rebecca, you have been and are a dancer and a dance teacher. Tom, you have a broad background in coaching and football in particular. What was it about each of those individual pursuits that drew you to them?
Tom: For me, in particular, when I came out in college, I went directly into a training conditioning type of setting where I was dealing with all athletes all the time. That could be a lot of fun. It could be very exciting because you’re going to see the products of your labor directly on the field.
That was great for a long time, but then the transition started to go to more, “How can I challenge myself to help people who don’t have the abilities of these athletes?” When I got out of coaching and into more of the personal fitness realm, it was so much more rewarding for me to say, “Listen. You were somebody who is suffering from chronic back pain, or migraines, or shoulder pain, and now you’re able to live a more active lifestyle than most other people.” That’s more rewarding than watching an athlete go from bench pressing 325 to bench pressing 375. I’ve got a lot more out of that.
The background has really been spurred on by trying to learn new things too. I feel that … Especially in Rebecca in her field, if you ever stop learning, you should be out of the business. There’s a lot of right ways to do things more than there are wrong ways. To be able to find out what all those right ways are or release most of the right ways, allows you to help a lot more people than the narrow scope of knowledge that you might have.
Rebecca: I came to personal training by accident through dance. I was dancing in New York, and dancing in New York is a bit of a difficult thing to also make a living at. I was in a company with a bunch of girls who were Pilates instructors and managers and personal trainers and they happen to … I really loved what they were talking about and they happen to have connections to interviews and that thing. That’s how I got into personal training. I wanted to make money doing something that I loved, helping other people move and come to fitness from maybe places where they didn’t know how to get there.
From there, I really fell in love with personal training, but more how people moved watching the technique of different movement patterns when people were doing different exercises. I became really intrigued with how does this happen. Why is the brain connecting with the muscles and putting a knee cap in a certain place? Why is that happening and how is that happening?
I found the answers to those questions through motor learning and control. As I was doing that, I fell in love with the topic of aging and became extremely intrigued by the changes that happen as we age. The fact that you can really slow those changes and slow those regressions, and even to some extent, put a stop to some of them and reverse them.
I am so impressed by working with people who have goals that are as simple as getting down to the floor who can’t do that anymore. That to me is what this field is all about, is finding those things that make people’s quality of life that much better. People doing things that they just thought they couldn’t do anymore.
Dr. Lisa: What types of lessons that you takeaway from the work that you did with Equinox in New York City? It seems like what you’re describing, each of you is describing, probably pulls some elements from what you did there, but also seems fairly unique to this new business hat you started.
Rebecca: It is. We have to cut at Equinox with a huge amount of what we do and what we’re able to do here. We couldn’t have started a business without that background. Equinox is hugely aware of the importance of education, and they put a great deal of emphasis on education as they hire new trainers. For me, I had a background in dance. I have a degree in dance, so I have the anatomy training and all of that, but I didn’t necessarily have the exercise physiology training and the scientific background of how everything works together.
For me, as a new trainer, Equinox, they gave me my entire base of education. When you go through classes for years and years and years there, and it’s all paid for. You have the opportunity to really delve into the material without the issue of, “Oh! I have to go to work and do this.” It’s all combined. That’s really amazing.
They give you the opportunity to grow. I think we’re both able to take that base and then find the neesh that we really entrusted in and expand from there.
Tom: I also feel that Equinox gave Rebecca and I a very good footprint of what fitness could be, more from how we should feel. When you walk into a place, you should know that it’s clean, that is going to be inviting, is going to be friendly, is going to be focused on you. The customer service aspect that we learned from that company has really driven us to build what we want to build here.
Principles of being able to have an unbelievably clean workspace when you walk in I think can’t be discounted at all. That’s what we learned at Equinox. Just the basic business of how to do this and make sure that people, for a lack of a better phrase, get what they pay for and make sure that they leave the building feeling, “Okay. I feel good. I feel like I’m making progress. I feel like this house I spent with this person was completely focused. It was programmed.” That’s something that we took away from that position.
Dr. Lisa: Having been in your store and having bought a couple of items which I had to limit myself because there’s a lot of really great things that I would have bought many of, many more of. I was impressed with the conversations that I had with you about where the clothes came from. These are clothes that you wear to … In my case, I was buying a shirt to run in, and I bought a shirt for my daughter to workout in. You’re both very conscious of buying things from organizations that have a commitment to bringing quality products into the world without, I don’t know, using abusive processes to manufacture these products.
I think that’s pretty great, and I’m not sure that everybody pays attention to that. Why was this important to you?
Rebecca: We felt there is a lot of athletic clothing out there, a lot of very good athletic clothing out there, and that there are certain brands that dominate the market. Living in athletic clothing, we’re very aware of what those brands are and how they feel on your body.
Being small business owners, we really felt it was our duty and that it was very important to draw in other small business owners. Particularly those that were focusing on the quality of their product. We have made an effort to reach out to those business owners that we feel the quality is extremely good. That they’re taking the time to know where their product is being made. That they’re taking the time to then look over every single piece of the item that’s being made.
Those people are so dedicated to their businesses that we felt it was our duty to promote that as well, as long as those clothing provided the same, if not, better quality than some of the larger brands. That’s where the impetus came from. We’ve reached out to a lot of the small business owners. They’ve been really wonderful to work with.
Like you said, we really try to make an effort to find things that are really nice to workout in. We’ve tried all of the clothing ourselves and we live in it. We feel it does a great job with the athletic part of it, but also the leisure wear part of it. We really want to make this a lifestyle. We don’t want people just to come in and buy clothes that they’re going to workout in, but buy clothes that they’re going to workout and then feel comfortable going to lunch afterwards, or going to pick up their kids, or just hanging out in.
We want fitness to be an entire brand for yourself. We want people to wake up in the morning and live a healthy lifestyle, and the clothes reflect that. That’s where we got the idea from.
Tom: Yeah, I don’t have much more I could add to that. I really like the idea of providing environmentally responsible clothing. We have a couple of brands that for every item that they’re sold, they take a pound of trash out of the oceans, or for every item sold, they donate a meal to a homeless shelter or they’re all made in … If they’re not American made, they’re made in only women owned factories. It’s really important to us that things are done responsibility and ethically. It’s not some sweat shop. People are getting paid fair wages for their work.
Dr. Lisa: What are some of your favorite brands?
Rebecca: I love my new found obsession, is a new company called Katie Brown LA. She’s a business owner out of California and Oregon. She just takes such pride in her clothes. I have spent hours on the phone with her and she’s told me how things are made and why she’s made them that way. Her material is just the softest thing you’ve ever put on your body, and I can’t stop wearing it everyday. I go to my closet and say, “Oh! Which Katie Brown can I put on today?”
I love her clothing, but I also love her business model. The customer service is better than I have ever, ever seen. If I need to talk to her, she will call me immediately. That’s the customer service that we want to provide our clients and our customers. I really appreciate that coming back and having such a quality product.
Tom: I really enjoy the spiritual gangster brand that we have. It’s been popular so far in Portland. I just love the fact … I think their motto was something on the lines of clothing for a high vibration lifestyle. I just think that sums up people like Rebecca and I, because we’re always moving. We’re always doing something. We can never really sit still. It’s clothing that help you think, “Okay. Yeah, I’m spiritual, I’m centered, but I’m also … I’m tough. I can go out and I can get things done.”
I just really love the aspect of creating … What they’ve done is that they create a brand that takes the aspects of putting yourself out there and then also being able to center it back to you again. I just love that. A couple of other brands that I think is worth noting about, is we have a brand out of Arizona called R&R Surplus. This is started by a husband and wife team similar to Rebecca and I. He was a boxer and was always working out and wanted to have something that he could wear around the house that was going to be comfortable, very, very well made, but also fashionable. They developed this line.
It’s all hand stitched. It’s all made to order directly for us. Really, it’s an amazing product. Tripled layer sweatshirts that are just incredibly comfortable. I just love the aspect that they say, “Listen. This isn’t something that we don’t know if we’re going to like, be Nike or Reebok, but we’re going to make stuff that we want, that we want to wear and hopefully you want to wear to.” I love that. I love that aspect.
Dr. Lisa: Having lived in Maine for most of my life and having been a runner for most of my life, and an athlete in college and in high school. I think I agree with you that it’s important to have … Because I do something almost everyday, it becomes something that I actually look for. I look for clothes that wear well. I look for clothes that feel good if I’m going to run 13 miles in the winter. I’m going to look for something that’s warm and that wicks moisture.
It actually becomes … It’s such a big part of what I do and a lot of people do that I think what you’re describing is really important. I think … I remember back in, I guess, it must be the 80s, just putting on an enormous sweatshirt and going out with rag clothes and going out on a January morning to run.
I so appreciate having the nice clothing, because it’s also motivating. It’s motivating to be able to be, “I love this outfit. I’m going to put it on and I’m going to go do my interval training.” I think what you’re doing is recognizing that sometimes working out is not easy. Whatever we can do to feel really good about it in ourselves. It’s helpful.
Rebecca: Exactly.
Tom: I think you bring up a really interesting point too. Suddenly, I believe in … Is not always focusing so hard on an end result. They talk about the pursuit of happiness. I’d like to think more about the happiness of the pursuit going through that journey. I think that what you wear, why you do that has an impact on that. If you enjoy your journey, the idea of you getting to that endpoint comes much more realistic.
Dr. Lisa: I like that you call yourselves Shift. It’s a little bit softer and it suggests that transformation is possible in incremental ways. Tell me why. Why was that term … Why did that become your store title?
Tom: You definitely touched on it. We think that, to say, “Let’s change.” or “I’m going to go on a diet.” let’s say, is not the right way of thinking about things. If you can say, “Let’s change gently.” or “Let’s shift the way that you eat.” Let’s shift your thinking about something, makes a lot more sense than doing a dead stop full change.
When we’re thinking about names for the store and our company, we wanted to have something that could go a lot of different ways too. We wanted people to be able to look at our name and strike some thoughts. What are they trying to get at? What were they trying to accomplish? Shifting is a verb, it’s a noun, there’s a lot of different things that you can play it with. We just really liked it. We thought it was a nice way to … We want to say, make some shift happen. Let’s get out there and let’s try to inspire some people.
Dr. Lisa: Rebecca, if people come to your store on Market Street, obviously they can buy some of these wonderful pieces of clothing that you’re describing. You also offer personal training sessions. You also offer classes. Tell me about some of the things that people will be able to sign up for.
Rebecca: We have a few different ways of making appointments with us. The first is classes. We offer three classes a week. They’re small group classes. Meaning they’re limited to four people. They’re extremely individualized. They are Tuesday and Thursdays at 5:30 PM for an hour, and Saturday mornings at 9:00 AM. There are small group circuit training classes. We change the workout everyday, every class. It’s for all levels.
If you have never worked out before and you’re entrusted in trying these classes, that’s fine. We will take the time to teach you or to regress or progress the exercise based on your ability and your level of experience and knowledge. In terms of personal training, our personal training sessions are an hour. They are by appointment. We are able to accommodate whatever schedule you have. Whether that is at 6 AM or 6 PM or 7 PM, 8 PM. Our goal is to have people workout whenever they can. We want to fit those sessions into crazy schedules.
If you come to the store or call us, we’ll talk to you about where your fitness levels are now. What your goals are. We’ll talk to you about making those goals maintainable and achievable. We will do fitness assessment. We’ll make an appointment to take an hour with you to go over every concern that you have. We want to learn about your lifestyle. What do you eat in the morning? What do you eat at night? What happens when you go out on a Saturday night? That thing. Everything is so important and vital to the success of reaching your goal.
We want to see how you move. What joints are locked. What joints are moving properly. We’ll do an assessment called the functional movement screen, which assesses every joint in your body and sees how you really move and what is going on. Are there problems with your hip joint? Is that maybe affecting pain in your back. Are you having pain in your knee? If so, is your ankle joint locked? That thing.
We really do a very thorough assessment. Again, this is all about moving well and maintaining and achieving the optimum, or the optimal quality of life however old you are. Whether you’re 18 and you’re a football player and you want to go to college for football. We can help you with that. Whether you’re 85 and you have had a lot of balance issues. We can help you with that.
Whether you’re 45 and you’re concerned about moving into the 50s, the 60s and you want to make sure that you do that without injuries. We can help you with that too. It’s all about looking at the individual and seeing where they are and how they’re moving, and then creating individualized program for that person and taking you through that.
Dr. Lisa: Tom, what is the website for Shift Portland?
Tom: We’re at www.shift-portland.com. All of our information is on there, for our class schedules, information regarding the brands that we sell, information about our rates and biographical information about Rebecca and I as well.
Dr. Lisa: Excellent. I am hoping that many people, as a result of this conversation, will be calling you up and coming into your store and seeing all the wonderful things that you have to offer. I give you a lot of credit for starting this new business and being entrepreneurs in this field, because I think it’s an important one.
We’ve been speaking with Tom Kropf and Rebecca Woll who runs Shift Portland, a personal fitness facility on Market Street. Thanks so much for the work that you’re doing, and thanks for coming in today.
Tom: Thank you.
Rebecca: Thanks for having us.