Back In Motion With Dr. Scott Gray (Good Neighbor Podcast)

Charlie McDermott:
Welcome to Episode Number 334 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. And today, it’s Back in Motion. We have Dr. Scott Gray. Scott, how you doing?

Dr. Scott Gray:
I’m good. Thanks for having us on.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah, yeah, thrilled to have you because there’s nothing better than getting folks, one, out of pain, two, back to the life of quality versus just existing. And, and certainly, not only do you have a knack for that, but you have your, your own method, and I want to get into that. But let’s start with, Scott, tell us a little bit about your company, Back in Motion.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, so we are a kinda alternative health company, so we offer physical therapy, alternatives to surgery, taking painkillers. We offer sports performance training for athletes in Fort Myers. And we also offer, like, fitness and, you know, personal training component to people that, you know, wanna look their best, feel their best. So we got an array of services that we offer, but it’s more of alternative health and a more holistic approach to medicine.

Charlie McDermott:
I love that. I mean, that’s music to my ears. Our listeners know our background, Barb and I, my wife,  we had a chain of health clubs and we were certainly all about allowing your body to do what it was designed to do. Right?

And in this day and age, it’s not the way the medicine works. You know, just lumping everyone in that same box. And it’s so important to have, you know, other options that allow our body to get back to, and not be dependent upon a lifetime of, of drugs or painkillers or anything else, right?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Exactly.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah, yeah. I love it, love it. So how ’bout the Gray Method? Do you mind spending a couple of minutes just, just sharing what that’s all about?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, and, so it’s kinda like our unique selling proposition about Back in Motion. It’s our method and approach that I’ve created.

So, I was a college athlete, I was playing Division 1 Football and I was a great athlete, but I couldn’t stay healthy. And so, over a two-year window, I had four surgeries.

I went from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, and what I had found was that I wasn’t alone and there are many people that get stuck in this medical model where they get test after test they don’t ever really address, the root cause of things. Right?

And so, it wasn’t until I was healed by a doctor of physical therapy and I saw that he fixed the cause of it, right?

I no longer had pain, never had another surgery.  I actually went on to my junior year in college to play all the games, it was All-Conference. So, I just thought it was good medicine, like why didn’t someone recommend this?

And so long story short, the last ten years, I spent a ton of money,  traveled the globe, learning from as many people as I can and the end result has been kinda the creation of this Gray Method™.

When we look at the most common conditions that cause people pain, there are usually three key areas of the body that it sources from and that’s the foot, hips, or thoracic spine.

So, we’ve got an algorithm and all of our therapists are trained in it and we’re getting ready to go to the stage to have our own fellowship to train other providers on this.

Charlie McDermott:
Oh, wow, wow. That’s awesome. And, you’re so modest but I know we have football fans for listeners and want to know. All right, where did you play?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, so I played small D1 ball at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Charlie McDermott:
Very cool. Nice, nice. And your position?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Oh, yeah, I was a tailback. So I was a really good running back. Believe it, or not. Back in the day, at least.

Charlie McDermott:
(laughs) Great, that’s great. I love it, I love it. So, you know, you, kinda talked about your journey a bit into this world of healing,

You went to school,  and because of the injuries, you just kinda said, “Hey, there’s gotta be a better way to keep me on the field,” and now you’re keeping folks in Southwest Florida on the field, right? The field of life.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, exactly, right. And so that’s kinda been, like, our mission and why. Our system is just broken. And, I’m not saying, you know, I mean there are good things about traditional medicine, you know, ours is just kind of an alternative to it, right?

It doesn’t make sense to me, at least in my brain, of just getting injections of things that hurt, but never addressing the root cause of it, so the pain comes back, and then you have another surgery.

So it’s just an alternative choice for patients that do value their health and they, they want to kind of get to the root cause of it, right?

Charlie McDermott:
Yep, yeah, rather than slapping the Band-Aid on, right? You know, let’s, let’s deal with, you know, the bigger issue, right?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Right.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah, that’s great. So, how about, what kind of myths do you hear, Scott, in your world, whether it be, you know, the medical side, the rehab side, fitness, anything come to mind?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, so I think it goes back to kind of our mission with the medical model that’s broken. Like typically, everyone thinks when they’re in pain that I need to have an image or an MRI and that that equates to why I’m in pain.

And what we have found, and actually with scientific evidence and research, actually sometimes getting these tests and images makes things worse because you read this report, your physician tells you, “Yeah you have this, this, and this wrong with you.”

They use big, crazy words so then it labels that patient. For instance, they think I have a herniated bulging disc, I can’t be helped.

Long story short, they did a huge, massive study on 10,000 people and they MRI’ed 10,000 people’s backs.

8,000 of them had crazy things. Herniated bulging discs, foraminal stenosis, but 8,000 people weren’t in pain. So, basically what they had concluded was, just because you have this thing labeled on your MRI, does not mean that you have to be in pain if that makes sense.

So, there’s a lot of, more or less, I think, false beliefs patients have, and that gets in the way as to why they can’t get better.

So we as a medicine and medical model, we’ve done a poor job of equating then educating patients above that. Right?

Charlie McDermott:
Right, right.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Another thing I would say is just from my perspective in my industry, a lot of times people think to see a doctor in physical therapy, that they need a physician referral but you don’t need that.

We are providers now, that you can see right off the street.

The last thing is just because you maybe have seen a physical therapist or someone else, you think that you know, they’re all created equally.

And that’s just not true, right? There are different tiers or classes of just like an accountant or basketball player, there are good ones, there are great ones, right?

And so, just because you haven’t been helped, maybe per se, in the past, you know, chances are… maybe, you just maybe have had the wrong treatments and the wrong diagnosis. And so, that’s really, like, what we’ve done is tried to bridge the gap at Back in Motion with the Gray Method™.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah. Yeah, that’s a real good point, you know, it’s like, you hire a plumber to do a job and you’re not pleased with the job, does that mean you never hire a plumber again, you know?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Exactly.

Charlie McDermott:
You know, and this is even more important. I mean, we can live with bad plumbing, but it’s quality of life, again, that’s so important.

And, to just stop, well I tried that, well no, no. ‘Cause as Scott had shared there, there are a lot of folks out there that could help, certainly, but you owe it to yourself to keep trying until you find the answer.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah.

Charlie McDermott:
And we just have a personal story with our daughter who had some medical challenges outside of the physical therapy world and all that. And my goodness, you know, Barb was on a mission to help our daughter we went through, I wanna say easily 20, 25, 30 different options until we found the answer.

And what’s nice is you provide hope.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Right.

Charlie McDermott:
Love it, love it. So, how ’bout when you’re not in the office, what are you doing for fun?

Dr. Scott Gray:
It’s few and far between, to be honest at this stage.

To be honest with you, we enjoy traveling and just spending time with our son.

Charlie McDermott:
Nice.

Dr. Scott Gray:
I’ve got a 16 month-year-old son. I have another one on the way. So, I mean I like to give them as much time as we can, my wife included.

So, we try to slow things down and just kind of appreciate the small things in life and, you know…

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah.

Dr. Scott Gray:
You have to work hard, but at the end of the day, it’s, you know, it’s our family and that stuff first.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah. It’s the simple things in life, right? That gives us the fulfillment and yeah, good for you, and congratulations on the second.

That’s great. How ’bout, Scott, looking back in life, you know, a time where you were challenged, you went through a hardship, and now you can say, hey it was something that I needed to go through because now I’m stronger, or I’m better for it. What comes to mind?

Dr. Scott Gray:
I guess I kinda go back to that initial story I gave, right? I think it’s easy to kind of get down in the dumps, stuck in this rut, and not find the solution that you’re looking for.

So, I mean, that’s something that always kind of, you know, sticks back into my mind and that’s something I always talk about to my patients. I like to study, people that have had success and they just never give up, right?

You might have a goal in mind and you might have some bumps in the road, but you alter your plan, you get back on that path.

I’ve been blessed otherwise to, you know, grow up, you know, in a pretty good family. But,  I’m human too, I’ve faced adversity with other things and that’s something that really sticks back in my mind is just never giving up in that process and just keep at it.

Charlie McDermott:
Keep moving. Get back up, right? Yeah. Get tackled behind the line of scrimmage, all right there’s another play, right?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, right, right.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah, that’s great. How about one thing you wish our listeners knew about your company, what would that be?

Dr. Scott Gray:
I think the big thing is just, knowing that we’re not just going to get rid of your symptoms. The goal is really to fix the cause, not the symptoms. That’s what we stand for.

I don’t think most providers can say the same. And we want to get you better, we don’t want you to be a patient for life.

We want to see you out and about moving and saying, “Yeah, like, you know, Scott and his team helped me,” you know?

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah, yeah. Love it, love it. So, I know we have listeners who could use your help and want your help, but how can they get in touch with you?

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, so you can call our office which is 239-223-0484.

Or if you just do a quick search online and search Back in Motion Fort Myers, you’ll see our address and website come up.

We provide physical therapy in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and we have a couple, actually in other parts of Fort Myers inside a couple of golf communities.

Charlie McDermott:
Oh wow. That’s great, so you’ve got a number of locations so it’s real convenient for folks to find you.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Yeah, exactly.

Charlie McDermott:
That’s great. Well, Scott, I really appreciate your time and everything you do in the communities, keeping us on the path, of having fun with life rather than being brought down, bogged down with pain, and you’re awesome, man.

Dr. Scott Gray:
Thanks for having us. I really do appreciate it.

Charlie McDermott:
Yeah.

Dr. Scott Gray:
You know, we really love what you’re doing. I think it’s a great thing and I think a lot of local businesses can appreciate this, it’s a good platform. We need more things like this, especially with the crazy pandemic that we’ve faced this past year it’s great. Keep doing what you’re doing.

Charlie McDermott:
Well, thank you.