01What does your business do, in your own words?
PT Liftology is a physical therapy clinic with locations in Cedar Park and Leander, TX. We primarily work with athletes and active adults who want to get out of pain, keep training, and prioritize movement as a way to stay healthy. Most people come in thinking they're gonna be told to stop lifting or stop running for 6 weeks, and that's pretty much the opposite of what we do. Every session is a full hour, one on one with our PTs. No aides, no techs, no getting passed around. It really is a new way of doing physical therapy that has been a huge relief for our patients. They know they are getting the best care possible.
We see a lot of back pain, neck pain, shoulders, hips, knees, running-type injuries and pain, lifting injuries in the gym, and people coming back from surgery. We use hands-on manual therapy, dry needling, and a lot of strength work that fits whatever sport people love to do around Austin.
The best part is that we're cash pay, so insurance isn't telling us how long we get with you or what treatments we can and cannot do. No limitations, and everything therefore is individualized for the people we are helping.
Another fun fact is that we teach continuing ed courses for other PTs on how to work with lifters, which is kind of our way of trying to make the whole profession better. We also work closely with schools around Austin to help their physical therapy students learn as much as they can before becoming doctors of physical therapy.
“Every session is a full hour, one on one with our PTs.”
02What would locals be surprised to learn about you or the business?
Honestly, that PT doesn't have to be laying on a table with a heat pack and some rubber bands. A lot of people had a bad PT experience before, like 15 minutes with the PT and then 45 minutes with an aide doing the same exercises everybody else is doing. That's not how it has to be. The other big thing is you probably don't have to stop training. Most of the time we can work around the injury and keep you moving while we fix what's actually causing it. And in Texas you don't need a doctor's referral to start physical therapy. You can just come see us, oftentimes within 24 hours. People are always surprised by that one, and it saves them a lot of time and money.
03What's the hardest part of running this business that nobody sees?
Explaining the cash pay model and how that is the best thing for people who are serious about getting back to the things they love to do. People hear "we don't take insurance" and automatically think it's gonna cost way more. A lot of times it doesn't, once you add up copays and how many more visits you need at a place where you only get 15 minutes with your PT. One of the favorite parts about this challenge, though, is really digging into the patient's "why" and the real reason they are sitting with you. It often is not really about pain. It's what that pain means to them (and their loved ones) and what worries them if it does not go away.
04Why here? What made you choose this area?
Austin, Cedar Park, and Leander are full of people who love to be active. Runners, lifters, CrossFit athletes, HYROX racers, weekend warriors, parents chasing kids around and hoping to keep up with their kids for as long as possible. Our Cedar Park clinic is right inside Stonehenge Weightlifting, which is kinda perfect because we can watch people actually lift during a session instead of guessing. Then we opened Leander because so many of our people were driving down from up there and it just made sense to meet them where they are. That is where a lot of our HYROX athletes go. We're inside the best HYROX gym around, named Leander Athletic Club. If you're serious about training, that is the place to be.
“Most of the time we can work around the injury and keep you moving while we fix what's actually causing it.”
05What's changed most in the area since you opened?
Leander and Cedar Park have blown up. There's so many new neighborhoods, new gyms, and way more people doing stuff like HYROX and running events than even a few years ago. More people are into training seriously, which means more people who need somebody that actually gets what they're trying to do and won't just tell them to quit.
06What do you wish more people knew about your industry?
We wish people knew how good physical therapy can be when you find the right person and they actually take the time to get to the root cause of your pain. It's also important to check in with your PT every year, just like you would for your primary care physician, to make sure everything is moving correctly and your body is working in your favor.
07What's next for the business this year?
Our mission for the rest of the year is to get people around Austin, Cedar Park, and Leander to know they have an excellent place they can go and receive care. We want to help build a stronger community that centers around health, especially when it comes to movement and being strong.
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