Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of North Atlanta
Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
EP #108: Corrective Exercise Solutions with Ben Wooley
Unlock the secrets to enhancing your golf game and overall fitness with our guest, Ben Wooley from Corrective Exercise Solutions. Ben takes us through his inspiring journey from Ohio to Atlanta, where he discovered the power of stretch therapy and built a thriving business catering especially to golfers. Learn how strategic stretching can improve your performance on the green and alleviate chronic pain. Ben also shares the broader benefits of stretch therapy for endurance athletes and individuals recovering from joint replacements, dispelling common myths along the way. And if you've ever wondered about golf safaris, Ben’s got some fascinating insights that might just spark your next adventure.
Beyond the world of stretch therapy, Ben opens up about his personal life and his unwavering passion for fitness. From early morning workouts to hot yoga and cold plunges, discover how Ben maintains his physical and mental well-being. We also dive into the challenges he faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely impacted his business. Hear how resilience, strategic networking on LinkedIn, and sheer determination helped Ben turn adversity into opportunity, transforming him into a stronger business owner. This episode is a compelling blend of professional insights and personal stories that highlight the importance of perseverance and adaptability in both life and business. Don't miss this enriching conversation with Ben Wooley.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, north Atlanta, where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host.
Speaker 2:Stacey Risley. Hello friends and neighbors, welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we're here with Ben Woolley with Corrective Exercise Solutions. Hi Ben, how are you?
Speaker 1:Hey, stacey, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here are you, hey Stacey?
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. Well, I'm excited to have you on, and, like me, you are a fellow Dunwoodyan and I know that your business is also here in Dunwoody, so I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about that. And with that, let's go ahead and get started by telling our listeners about Corrective Exercise Solutions.
Speaker 1:So Corrective Exercise Solutions is my small business, my company I provide. I'm a licensed massage therapist but as a practitioner all I do is stretch therapy. So Corrective Exercise Solutions, my primary target market is the golf community here in Atlanta and I service that community through my clinical practice and I also have onsite contracts with the Capital City Club and the Cherokee Town and Country Club.
Speaker 2:Do I see non-golfers?
Speaker 1:Yes, at my clinical practice those would be endurance athletes, fitness enthusiasts, people coming pre or post, joint replacement, things like that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I just do a little bit for everyone, for sure. Yeah Well, this is a new industry for me. I know you said you're a licensed massage therapy but that you really hone in and focus on stretch therapy, and so I mean, of course I know stretching is important and all of that, but I didn't realize there was a whole therapy for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I was actually a practicing stretch therapist when I went to massage therapy school. So for me massage therapy school, I just thought it was important to have the state license, you know, lets everybody know that I'm a licensed therapist.
Speaker 2:You're legit yeah definitely legit.
Speaker 1:Opens up more doors, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. People do like to know you're licensed if you're working on their body in any sort of way. I imagine, yes, definitely that. Well, tell our listeners, ben. Tell us about Ohio and 2009,.
Speaker 1:I moved down here to Atlanta and was working at their Alpharetta location strictly as a personal trainer. But at that location they had a guy on staff, on their personal training staff, who all he did was stretch therapy, but he was also an instructor. So I kind of I don't know unofficially like apprenticed under him. I don't know how you want to describe that, but I just learned from him, pick things up from him, and because he was an instructor, he's at one point he just said well, it was time for me to start going to his seminars. And so I went to his seminars and then, you know, the following week my table was right next to his. So that was a very good learning experience. I did spend some time traveling to the different lifetime locations as a stretch therapist here in Atlanta Sandy Springs and their tennis facility over in Peachtree Corners and then I struck out on my own, started my own business, corrective Exercise Solutions in the fall of 2015.
Speaker 2:Nice, so you've been at this a good while now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely there was a time back at Lifetime where I was doing both fitness and stretch therapy, but I've been, you know, a dedicated stretch therapist for well over 10 years now.
Speaker 2:Well, I imagine for you to dedicate this, the vast majority of your career towards this, that clients must get a lot out of it or they wouldn't keep coming back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and that's kind of why I really focused on the golf community. You know, it's a little older, so they maybe have more of an appreciation for what I do, um, uh, but they can really see the benefits, not just in their daily lives and so forth uh, pain reduction, performance enhancement, but yeah, um, you know, golf is kind of like a cult down here. So if you can, you know, maybe hit a little further, but also a lot of them they just want to play, you know, 18 holes without feeling destroyed for the next three days.
Speaker 1:So, I can definitely help with that. One of the big goals I work on with a lot of my players is they go on these you know golf safaris out to Ireland or South Africa or California, wherever, and they'll play, like you know, six rounds in four days, which is a ton of golf and like the goal is to get them feeling just as good on the flight home as they are on the flight out there, like you know, really get their mobility and their posture alignment good enough that they can withstand, you know, that intense amount of golf.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a lot of golf. I'd never have heard of a golf safari. I think of safaris, as you know, chasing animals in Africa.
Speaker 1:So like yeah, I know yeah, Like I said, some have gone to South Africa.
Speaker 2:Scotland.
Speaker 1:Ireland all over the place for sure.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, I know. Imagine that there's not. They're not putting rhinoceroses or giraffes on the golf courses for these safaris. You need to target Peachtree City. I grew up in Peachtree City and there everyone, we all had golf carts growing up and everything, oh yeah, horses all over, that's right. Get down on the south side too. I guess you wouldn't be great on the North Atlanta podcast, but still, Maybe you can hook me great on the North Atlanta podcast but still, maybe you can hook me up with a South Atlanta person.
Speaker 2:That's right, oh, my goodness. Well, let's talk about this, and I'm sure there are quite a few, but are there any myths or misconceptions about your industry, about your business in particular, that you would like to clear up with our listeners today? Definitely, that you would like to clear up with our listeners today.
Speaker 1:Definitely, probably the biggest misconception that I consistently encounter is that people feel that if they were to schedule a session with me, that I would just be showing them stretches to do at home.
Speaker 1:Now, granted, giving all my clients, you know, homework, so to speak, is definitely part of what I do, but I spend a very little bit, spend a very little time doing that, and actually I have a YouTube page of videos instructional videos and so forth and I actually I just send them the link to that YouTube page.
Speaker 1:What I do is like table-based manual therapy, almost like what you would expect from a physical therapist or a regular massage therapist, where my hands are actually physically on the client and I'm manipulating the client, so on and so forth. The analogy that I like to use is like going to the dentist. When I go to the dentist, it's the hygienist that helps me, you know, give me tips on how to brush better, how to floss better, and that sort of thing. When the dentist is seeing me, all he's doing is performing dentistry on me. The dentist doesn't spend time telling me how to floss better. So what I do when they come to see me is like the dentist, I'm just performing stretch therapy on the client and I use the YouTube page with my instructional videos to assist the clients with their you know their homework, their home stretch program, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2:So do you throw any massage work in there? If they've got a particular you know area that is sore or that they're working on, do you use that massage license that you worked hard to achieve? Massage?
Speaker 1:license that you worked hard to achieve. Definitely, there are some massage techniques that kind of flow into a stretch therapy session.
Speaker 1:I will say this all of my clients stay fully clothed during the sessions, so I don't do anything that requires clients to get undressed any like they would in a massage therapy session. I'm also I practice what's called instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, which is like massaging with the metal instruments, so that is more of like a pressure based system, which I do a lot on, like tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, plantar fasciitis, you know things like that. So if I do have to go into more of a pressure-based technique. I almost always defer to the instruments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Nice. So just this is a kind of a more of a personal question. But do you have any treatment for sciatica? My sciatic nerve is just just. It's actually been really good for the last six months or so, but I had a rough end of last year and I could have used some are you a runner therapy.
Speaker 2:I believe I'm not a runner, I you know, I'm very active, I'm a hiker, I'm a camper, I like to be outdoors, but I'm not like an endurance athlete, I wouldn't call myself that. But um, just like bending, you know, almost always it's the bending over motion that that will trigger it, and I'll do it repetitively for whatever you know the case may be. And then it, once it's flares up, it's, it's painful for months at a time. It's just yeah.
Speaker 1:So if next time it happens, I can come see you.
Speaker 2:I'll give you my website link. Sounds good.
Speaker 1:I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I wish I could say it was from golf. I should make up a better story. Oh well, so let's shift gears a little bit, ben, and have you tell our listeners what are you doing for fun when you're not working and helping people with their mobility and body? What are you out doing for fun?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean when I was a personal trainer. I obviously have a big interest in my own personal fitness so I'm a very early riser and I'm usually working out right here in Dunwoody at the One Life over there in Perimeter, usually right when they open 5 am 5.30 am. I don't do that every day, you know, you've got to take some rest days, but I do that most days of the week. You know, as I've gotten older, my recovery program has also become very important, so I do a lot of walking over there in Blackburn Park.
Speaker 1:I do a lot of hot yoga, and I've recently introduced the cold plunge. Have you tried that?
Speaker 2:I have heard about that. I have not tried it, but bravery yes.
Speaker 1:Over in Sandy Springs. Uh, in their suites there's, um, uh, an infrared sauna, a shower and a cold plunge. So you go back and forth between the the heat of the sauna and the cold of the cold plunge to do what they call contrast therapy.
Speaker 2:Um, it's definitely challenging when you're in that cold tub, but you will feel amazing when you get out oh, my goodness, I I don't want to call you a liar, but I would feel amazing after being in an ice tub, but I can't say I've never done it.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's the missing link in your program.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's it. Maybe that's why my sciatica is an issue sometimes. I've never braved the cold plunge, but I love Blackburn Park. I did the the. My daughter actually plays on a co-ed adult softball team and they play out oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:I see those teams out there, the soccer teams. I see cricket out there. They've got a lot going on yeah they do, they really do All ages.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, so now, if we're going to shift gears again from fun into something a little more serious, can you tell our listeners about a time in your life that you've had a struggle or a challenge, that you can say, for having been through that hardship, that you've come out on the other side of it better and stronger for having been through it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I don't want to overuse a cliche here, but the COVID and the lockdown really took a toll on my business. I mean, if you can imagine because I worked so closely, you know one-on-one contact with my clients that was definitely not, uh, it definitely wasn't a good time. And but not just that. I mean I lost clients, I lost on-site contracts, a lot of my business just dried up and, um, even even into 2021, it wasn't uh, you know it, it was still a struggle. But you know something that I did during the lockdown I used LinkedIn and I only have the free version of LinkedIn. I don't have any of the paid subscriptions. I just networked like crazy and the best clients that I have right now I found through LinkedIn and I got both of those on site contracts over at the Capital City Club and I got both of those on-site contracts over at the Capital City Club and at the Cherokee Town and Country Club.
Speaker 1:Those conversations started on LinkedIn, yeah, and so what's their model? You're closer than you think. Something like that.
Speaker 2:It is something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that was definitely true for me. I mean considering that, you know, the majority of my business now is, you know, business generated from LinkedIn or referrals from those LinkedIn clients you know that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that really is. And it I mean COVID was hard on a lot of businesses, you know, but healthcare in general, I think, probably being the most you know, I was during that time and I was in medical sales and like you said we were all trade show based.
Speaker 2:You know all of our leads were trade show generated, so it did it shut down. You know, for a lot of us that's a hardship that many business owners have faced and hopefully have all come out on it. I came out on it in a different career, so I'm glad that yours worked in your benefit.
Speaker 1:What did you?
Speaker 2:sell. I sold non-essential x-ray equipment. So it was, you know, digital x-ray upgrades and we were all trade show. We were all over the country and I mean it. Just there were no trade shows anymore and doctors weren't seeing, you know, so they weren't seeing patients. Much less Were they able to see, you know, people selling non-essential capital equipment.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the hardest things for me, you know, because I struck out on my own in 2015. And then, yeah, the lockdowns and everything kind of put me right back to what it was at the beginning and it was hard, I don't want to say to not be angry at that, but there I was, you know, five years later, and I was kind of back at square one and it was hard, it was very difficult to not get upset at that, but you just had to keep moving forward and, like I said, using that LinkedIn really helped out, and it was probably sometime in 2022 where I had what's the phrase bounced forward. I was doing better than I was, you know, in 2019, but it took a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, I'm. I'm happy for you that it happened, because it didn't happen for everyone and that is great, that you know it's a testament to. You know that your relationship building skills and, and that you, you know, persevered through that, so uh, probably has made you a stronger business owner. For for the struggle, so glad you stuck with it. Well, we're really about to kind of wrap up at this point. Is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about corrective exercise solutions?
Speaker 1:Uh, just that. Again I'm here. I'm here in Dunwoody, but I serve the greater Atlanta community. I do do some house calls, so that's always available. They can find more information about me, my YouTube channel, all my social media, on my website that would be wwwcorexsolcom. Just all the information is there, all the information about my onsite contracts, my work with the golf community, my work with the Universal Tennis Academy, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Well, wonderful Ben, it has really been a pleasure. I've learned a lot in this episode, and it's been a pleasure having you on.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:That's all for today's episode, Atlanta. I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor podcast. Thanks for listening and for supporting the local businesses and nonprofits of our great community.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses, visit gnpnorthatlantacom. That's gnpnorthatlantacom.
