Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins

Inside Performance Physical Therapy: Care Beyond Exercises

• Nick George

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0:00 | 17:35

Pain that lingers isn’t a life sentence; it’s a puzzle waiting for the right clues. We sit down with Paula Nickel of Performance Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation to unpack what truly drives recovery, why slowing care down can speed healing, and how a small, patient-first clinic thrives after 30 years by refusing to treat people like metrics. From triathlon roots and Olympic training rooms to everyday back pain and post-op rehab, Paula shares how she reads movement like a story—spotting muscle imbalances, compensations, and daily habits that hide beneath symptoms.

We dig into common myths, including the idea that physical therapy is just exercises, and the harmful belief that aging equals decline. Paula explains how targeted mobility, hip dissociation, and stability work can unlock back and sciatic pain when done consistently, and why tiny daily movements often outperform big, flashy workouts. Her philosophy is practical and hopeful: outcomes improve when you combine hands-on assessment, clear coaching, and time to think. She also makes a case for a multidisciplinary team—PTs, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists—because different perspectives reveal different solutions.

Paula’s most formative story comes from a college English class, not a clinic: a harsh critique, a flawless draft, and a C that sparked a lifelong promise to never do a lazy job. That same standard shows up in her practice’s careful evaluations and individualized plans for athletes, weekend warriors, and active grandparents alike. If you’ve tried PT and felt unseen, don’t stop there—fit matters, and not all physical therapy is the same. Subscribe to discover more neighbor-to-neighbor stories, share this with someone who needs a nudge toward hope, and leave a review to help others find the show.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Paula Nickel, with Performance Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation. Paula, how's it going today?

SPEAKER_01:

Good, Nick. How are you?

SPEAKER_02:

Excellent. Tell us all about your performance uh physical therapy and rehabilitation operation.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's healthcare, so that's always a challenge. Um it's a small practice, orthopedic uh physical therapy practice that's been in for in town up and running about 30 years.

SPEAKER_02:

How did you get into the business in the first place?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well once I decided I was gonna be a physical therapist, uh I worked, my first job was uh working for Orthopedic Center of the Rockies, which was a good first job. And uh I was in town and I left and I came back, and just in the few years uh of being a physical therapist, um you I wanted more control of uh how I did my work. And so uh uh it's it's probably more this way now, but very it started to be very much metric measured. So it's all about uh production, and it seems like um it seemed like uh no matter how many people you saw, you they wanted you to see more. And I just didn't want to operate that way anymore. And so I started my own, and somehow 30 years later, I'm still in business. Uh, you know what? I did not know I was gonna be a physical therapist, um uh which sometimes you know disappoints my patients. They think I've dreamt about being a physical therapist my whole life. But um, I went to school and uh I thought I wanted to go to medical school. I knew I wanted to be in health care, I knew I didn't want to be a nurse, I didn't want to deal with bodily fluids, and uh uh and I got out of college and I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I uh started thinking, what can I do? And I applied to physical therapy and I got in and I went and I just prayed to God that I liked it. And uh uh and it's been a really good career for me. I I really do like it. I've been I've been doing it for a long time, and um uh you get you you get trained in every aspect of physical therapy, and your job probably determines where you go, whether it's orthopedics or pediatrics or neurological or whatever. And my first job was the orthopedic center, and it just set the stage. And uh I just like I like that it's not all the same. Um, I like every day's different, and I like kind of being a detective and trying to figure out how to help people.

SPEAKER_02:

Why high performance or performance physical therapy? Um, you like working with athletes?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh we started, I used to do a lot of uh like a lot of triathlons and bike races and running races. And um uh so when we started, I think that's kind of the name we picked. I had a partner at one point. Uh he was into golf and other things. And uh sports medicine for sure is an easy grab, an easy market. Um I don't really so I see a lot of I I see a lot of athletes that way, but now it's just general orthopedics. We see anything from a kid to a 90-year-old. But I have done like I, you know, I when I left and went to California, one of my jobs was working with the group that did all the athletic teams in Los Angeles, the uh Lakers and Dodgers and stuff. And I've done CSU uh training rooms, and I've done the orthopedic or the Olympic Training Center. Uh and I I like athletes. I do I get I get enjoyment out whether you're an athlete or an 85-year-old. Doesn't matter to me.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah or both. Or both, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What's um what are some myths or misconceptions in your niche of the industry?

SPEAKER_01:

Um one is I think that people and doctors uh think we just give exercises, that we uh treat with just exercises. I think another myth is uh, and I've heard I don't hear it anymore, but I used to hear it from older patients, uh, that the older patients, you know, they used to, I mean, that the over my time opinions have changed, but they used to think that just they're just getting old and that's just the way it is, and you can't help them. So that was one. You I don't know why I'm here, you can't help me. And they didn't even know what we did. Um those are probably the two big myths there. And I think over time people are using physical therapy quite a bit. I think it's still underutilized, uh, probably more from physicians than population, but uh I think it's getting more and more utilized.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I've had a lifelong sciatica issue that I recently was able to overcome because I ran into the right chiropractor. Wasn't a physical therapist, but um he he told me that everything that I was doing with my legs together at the same time with squats was as bad for me as the English chair. And that I I needed to start learning to do scissor activities with my hips, um, and because we humans in in a natural environment never lift anything legs synchronized that way any more than we would walk like we're in a sack race.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so um it we've been damaging ourselves the way we exercise. And um, if I do the right ballerina exercises every morning before I start my regular workout, I don't have back problems, but I have to do all of those leg swings and dog pointer uh moves. I don't even know what it's called, but I do it every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and I mean, and you can you can help yourself with the right guidance. Yeah, it's it's uh good.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I have to do it daily though, and nobody knows this. There's people walking around thinking they're gonna be broken forever because they just don't know a few simple things. So it's good that you're out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and and I, you know, like you're using a chiropractor. I'm I believe in probably multidisciplinary. I think I think you need a team of people to help you, which is probably chiropractor, massage, acupuncture, physical therapist. Um, and if you don't if you don't get uh help, don't judge them all the same. Go find another one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that worked for me. So um, but he was thinking outside of his lane. He was pretending like he was a physical therapist and giving me information that I begged from him. You know, it wasn't even I didn't have to do anything to do with chiropractic, but uh I probably should have been with a physical therapist all along. So uh how are you marketing yourself now? How are you educating people about what you do and and that you exist and and why they should come see you in the digital world?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so not well. Um in the you know, in the good old days, 30 years ago, you was all you had to go see the doctor, talk to the doctor. Um uh you did mailers, right? Um now it's Google searches, Facebook, Instagram. I'm not very good at it, nor uh the big thing, Nick, is I don't have an interest, but I know that's the way uh that you market a business today. So I've had people work for me that take that interest and then they leave and then it kind of goes by the wayside. Um so we still have a website, we still have a Facebook that's probably not uh attended to very well. Um and then the biggest one it, I mean, I've been in town so long, you still have the doctor's referral, although the ones I started with are retired. So now you have a new group that I don't really know. Uh and uh so the biggest thing is word of mouth for us. Um that's probably the biggest thing. And then and then when you ask people how they came to you, uh it's a Google search. Yeah. And so I assume the Google search leads them to a website.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, um it's awesome that you've established yourself for so long. Uh, when you do start going digital, um, that'll make you more authentic, I think, in the SEO because you're so you've been around for so long. Um, maybe make it a little easier than people just starting out. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

For all the reasons you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well, you know, I uh I have I mean, just I just never crossed my mind, right? I used to do uh talks, uh, go to people would ask me to go to a school and teach teach something about physical therapy to their AP anatomy class, or uh I used to go to the senior center and do a uh class there. I mean, but I've never yeah, I mean the thing about doing live work, live talk, you get a limited audience. You get whatever the room holds if you're lucky, or you get 10 people to show up. And uh, you know, digital, you get a wide audience. I just haven't taken care, I haven't, I just haven't taken attention to it.

SPEAKER_02:

But what do you do for fun when you're not doing physical therapy for people?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I still, you know, uh I like being outside. Uh I haven't done a race, like a triathlon in a long time, but I'll still work out with uh uh cycling and running and weightlifting, and then uh people have warned me not to do this one, but I'm playing golf.

SPEAKER_02:

Why is that a problem?

SPEAKER_01:

Because golf is very frustrating. But uh I hike, I hike, I swim, camp, uh, stuff like that. But now I'm trying to master golf a little bit, which is it is frustrating. I'm usually I grew up doing a bunch of sports, so I think I can usually pick something up and do it. And golf hasn't been quite so easy.

SPEAKER_02:

Paula, is there some um hardship or life challenge that you overcame at some point in your youth or or middle life that uh that that uh made you the person that you are today?

SPEAKER_01:

You know that uh the easy answer is probably starting this business. That was hard. Uh but the thing that that made probably the most impact to me, that really probably just changed my approach to stuff, uh I'm in college, I take an English class, and I could give a I did not care two iotas about English. It's you have to take it, English 101. And I have this New York editor that uh is very uh critical of me. And so she gives you your writing assignments, and these are typewriter days, okay. So uh, and every paper I turned in, it's just marked up. And I don't care because I just need to get through this English class and move on to my science classes, and uh just full of red, and she finally uh I don't think I got one good mark from her, and uh she's hammering that I'm I don't uh proofread it, I don't check my typing errors, I don't do a rough draft, I don't do an outline, and she gives the last assignment, which is a longer paper, and for some reason I say to her, I say to myself, okay, I'm gonna show her I can do a good paper. And I do everything she's told me I've been lazy on. And I uh do the do the outline, I rewrite it, I do rough drafts, I rewrite it, I rewrite it, I rewrite it, I type it, I check for typos, I turn in the paper, and I get it back and there's no marks on it. And she gives me a C. And I I go and I said, you know, there's no marks on this paper. Why did you give me a C? And she says, I don't think you wrote it. And uh and she said, I think somebody wrote it for you. And I didn't know I could get somebody to write a paper for me. Okay, but I I looked at her and she had every right to think I didn't write that paper because I was so lazy on every other paper. And I said to myself, that's never gonna happen again. I am never gonna do a crappy job like that again. And and I that that really changed, like if I take something on, I'm not gonna be lazy, I'm gonna do a good job. But that's probably that's probably the thing that I remember from 18 years old that has really stuck with me. And she she did have every right to think I didn't write the paper. I wrote the paper, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So now you want to keep everything perfect, I get it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, or I will I at least don't want to be lazy. I'm gonna try to do my best on stuff. Like I'm not gonna give you a reason to think I didn't do I didn't do my best.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Paula, um, what do you want people that that find this um interview on Google to what do you want the big takeaway to be about Paula Nickel and performance physical therapy and rehabilitation?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, the the big one is uh not all physical therapy is the same. Uh I think uh like we have our our niche here. We look at the body in a way from a muscle imbalance, a muscle compensating uh way. We have a specific technique we use for that. Um uh so not all physical therapy is the same. So if you've had a bad experience or not not a helpful experience, uh just keep seeking uh another practitioner. It's everybody's individual. Um that's probably the biggest one. Like if I like the big one, yeah, you go to parties or occasions or whatever, and people will say, What do you do? And they'll either say their physical therapists are great, or it doesn't help me. Right. And I I think uh they're not all the same. We're not all just doing exercises, we're not all uh we're all individuals, and I think we all have our niche. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Paula, what are all the ways that people can find you in the digital world on social media, your website, um, and then a phone number if if that's okay?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh the big one is a website, which is uh performance performance-physical therapy.com. Uh, we do have a Facebook page going by the same name. Uh and we used to have Instagram, I'm not sure we do anymore. So I would say website or Facebook. Phone number 970-493-8727.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Paula, it's been an extreme pleasure having you on our show, and we definitely wish you and Performance Physical Therapy and Real Rehabilitation the very best moving forward.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks, Nick.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmpfortcollins.com. That's gmpfortcollins.com or call 970 438 0825.