How Two Chiropractors Turned Tragedy Into a Health Empire

Both of our daughters have done NICU time.

The first one was awful.

“We needed the medical interventions, but to get her”

where she is today where you don't notice the deficit or you don't notice that that has continued to evolve is because we opened it up to the alternative therapy. But goal is to make all these crazy technologies available. And so when we think about recovery,

we don't just think about physical, oh, my muscles were tired. We think about the whole body meeting a chance to recover. Dr. Dan Routenbeck and Dr. Ali Krish are husband and wife chiropractors

and health and wellness entrepreneurs who have built multiple businesses together. Their work spans integrated health care, recovery, and wellness technology with a focus on making better health and advanced therapies more accessible.

- We're one of the only developed nations

that doesn't prioritize rest.

Right, we are go-go-go, like you said, it's hustle and bustle, and we're looking for performance and we're looking for the edge moving forward, but we overlook the recovery process. And the elite athletes know,

'cause they have to do it to survive, right?

“But for us, it's such an important part of the missing link”

is separating, go-go-go from taking enough time to fill your own cup and then go back after it. - We're trying to get the masses ahead of the curve before again, it's like mainstream. So that's kind of the take that we have on it.

(dramatic music) - It spans the goal, like a super high school, into their elders, ready to go. (dramatic music) - It's not over, I'm telling how we're...

- The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. (dramatic music) - Hey, welcome back, everyone. (dramatic music)

- Open, Chicago is the lead. - You say, Paul is the focus, not on the planet. - You can live your dreams. - Hey, welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcasts.

And we got some really cool people in the office today who've helped a lot of athletes and just Olympians

“and MLB players, but they've come down from Atlanta”

and let's, what's your guys' names? What's your business and tell us what's going on? - Well, my name is Ali Crich. I am a doctor of carapractic and a serial entrepreneur. - I'm Dan Rittenbeck, I'm the lucky man

to this lovely woman. And yeah, we co-founded three health and wellness businesses now and many more to come, I'm sure. - All right, so three health and wellness businesses. That's a wide spectrum right there.

Yes, a little more details of which area you guys are focusing on. - So I'll start with that. So we started explore, we started exploring health and wellness together back in the day.

That's been what seven years ago now that started as a carapractic business. Just husband and wife came out of carapractic school and started it together. It has evolved into a massive pediatric integrated

holistic empire, which is mainly run by me now. It's got myself, I have two associate carapractors, I have two nurse practitioners, an RN and an MA and we kind of take on these complicated cases and get these kids well, which is super fun.

- And I just recently stepped out of practice from one on one care and we run a shockwaste under some America, which is a medical device manufacturing education and training program for over 2000 offices across nine countries.

And so that is my main focus now

and then the third business that we run together

is called recover expires hacking, which is a franchise model for recovery for people who are regular athletes that are looking for. - Yeah, weekend warriors. - Your pickleball players, your golfers,

people who are looking for a place to physically recover from their activities, so they can get back to their everyday life. - When they push it too hard on the weekend 'cause they think they're still like 18 and they're not there 40.

- Yeah. - Yeah, and a little soar. So they come in, they sit in our red light therapy booths. We have like coal plunges, sauna, sound therapy beds, all sorts of cool stuff.

- You were looking at me too, you know? - Too close. - Too close, it's like, okay, I'm my training like that, you know, just my birthday, so I'm 47, right? But I understand exactly what you guys are talking about.

So this is like a center with hot and cold dip plunge and is there a cryotherapy? - Yeah, it's kind of like a studio, so it's like a wellness studio. We don't love it, it has a much chiller vibe

than like a medical office. So it kind of runs like a gym membership style. So you can buy packages or you can have like different tiers and you can come in and do like one of our therapies or you can do like an hour, a biohacker specialist

we call in. And so he has a little bit more knowledge on like the end-depth part of what therapies are in there.

biohacking, right?

People are taking it to the nines,

they're going and they're doing injections and they're doing, you know, those aren't therapy and they're doing all sorts of things. - Right, I get the vision that we used to have of, I think it's Rocky with Carl Drago

and he's on the running machine and he's got like eight scientists around him, but now it's like, you know, the modern day age, it's like that old school way is now available to everyone. - It was what we wanted to build for ourselves

'cause it was something that we would have used as consumers and it didn't really exist. - What we do use it, I remember lots of times during the week. - Yeah, so contrast therapy, something called E-wild contrast therapy?

- Yeah. - What's contrast this? - So infrared sauna and the coal plunge. - Ah, gotcha, gotcha, and so you go back to the coal dip but with infrared therapy.

“Now don't they have like sunas with infrared therapy also?”

- Yeah, that's what we have. So we have that, it's like the Katy Perry song hot and then your cold, that's like the contrast room motto. So they can be in the suna to start, then take a little cold plunge

as they just do in a quick session, that's pretty much it or they have it for up to 15 minutes and they can do that two rounds and you feel like you're walking on water after you come out of there.

- Yeah, yeah. - Before I cut you off, it was contrast therapy and then what else? - So we have exercise with oxygen therapy so if you can picture kind of like the rocky thing

where they have a mask on and they're breathing 100% oxygen while they're biking. - Okay. - It's a great alternative to hyperbaric 'cause that everybody's suitable.

- You can't really do. You could be the Coll-Dragon. - You're okay, are you? - It's like universal studios when they put you on the ET bike, right?

- Yes, yes, yes. - The goal is to make all these crazy technologies available, right? It's designed for people like me and for you where we go and I'll play, you know,

“through Gaza Gulf and a weekend at a tournament”

and I can go back and have a place to go. That's not so serious, it's not medical. It's a place where I can go for an hour and just come out feeling so much better. And it's affordable, it's one of those things

where if you wanted to get hyperbaric therapy, if you wanted to get rid light therapy, if you wanted to do, you know, P-E-M-F or sound therapy, which we have as well, then you're paying, you know, hundreds of dollars

every time you go and it's not sustainable, right? And so the membership model or the package model for us, gives it the opportunity for anybody, literally anybody can participate in these biohacking therapies,

make their system function even better and recover from whatever it is that drives them, whatever they want to get.

- And we're like the first one,

but our intention is that this does franchise. Like we would love to see it across America, or wherever that goes, I mean, we're seeing you. - 'Cause now your season's not as spinoires,

already opening up that third business with this, you know, bigger mindset already. - Yeah, this vision, so yeah. - And I'm gonna keep on asking you questions on this 'cause I am, you know,

getting to that age where I'm just like, you know? - You don't look a day over like 32. - Oh, yeah. - I can not believe you just say.

- Boy beard going, I got a full, you know, a great guy. - You look great for you. - You look great. - Thank you. But sound therapy, you said? - Yeah.

- All right, so one of the, you know, pillars of wellness is the nervous system, right? And that's a big part of what we do in the car project world too, but it's a great way to de-escalate your system,

“especially if you just did like the contrast, right?”

You're coming out of there, and you're all hooked up because you just did this cold therapy, and you feel great and you're re-energized. - Yeah. - But if the goal is to calm the system,

then the sound therapy beds a place for you to lay, you close your eyes, you have the headphones on, and you get this feedback from the sound therapy bed that puts you in this kind of a flow state or this more relaxed state.

So this is for people who also have trouble sleeping, with their anxiety is through the roof. And so when we think about recovery, we don't just think about physical, oh, my muscles are tired.

We think about the whole body, meeting a chance to recover. - Yeah, just so it's not a beer in some reggae. - No. - I wish now. - That works too.

- But that does work. - So, but don't they also have those sound baths, as well? - Well, it's like they're like little eggs that kind of open up, and I think it was like Professor X and X-Men.

It would like completely put in that, and whatever. So that's what they're talking about. - Yeah, so like they're sound baths that people do now. They're like big egg looking things and they have like their different sides of it.

So it is so picture that like vibration coming off of it, 'cause normally you're like laying on a yoga map, aside it, okay?

So basically takes that egg and puts it in the yoga mat.

So you're laying on this bed that kind of vibrates, and the vibration really isn't the best word for it, but it sends all these different frequencies through your body, and you have headphones onto you are kind of hearing some of that sound bath,

they're like that noise that they make on the egg. So it's kind of mixing that together and not needing like somebody to do the sound thing. It's already free program to you can pick your program. - And how long is that program?

- About 15 to 20 minutes is usually enough to get the system to really take a deep breath and recover, yeah. - And I hear there's a lot of science behind it with like different, as you said, maybe not vibrations,

And kind of the effects that they have on cells,

“or is that what you guys are going into with that?”

- Correct. - Yeah, one of the technologies that we build is basic sound therapy, if you will, right? But we're creating changes to the pressure of the cell, and that's going to elicit a response.

And most of the time your healthy cells can take that information, and now it's either creating more of itself, some more blood flow, you know, better cellular energy, same thing we see with light therapy, right?

Some red light therapy, when it hits the cell, it's regenerating the mitochondria from more energy per cell. And so when you put all these different elements together, we're taking a very non-toxic therapy

that you can't really overdo it. You know, there's a limit of like now it's not going to benefit you anymore. - Yeah. - But I can't hurt somebody by doing some of these therapies

and it gives them a really great opportunity to not have to mitigate or investigate further or go crazy down this rabbit hole of other interventions, and it gets to stay on the holistic side. - Yeah.

How popular is it? - I mean, 'cause like, I guess the thing that's trending is like, okay, everyone's got to do the ice bass, and you know, how dip-cold dip, right, has kind of been around for a while.

Sounds stuff is like a bit new, you know? And for some of us like, we'd be like, hmm, right, kind of questioning in like, okay, you know, is that like, voodoo, right, is that kind of like

“the snake oil salesman of the new therapies, right?”

But it is science-backed and how popular is it with like, with professional athletes or the weekend warriors? You know? - Yeah, well, that's a good question. I think when we formed recover, like our biohacking studio,

we wanted to have a few of the more traditional things that have become mainstream, that people are okay with, like the contrast room, right? The red light therapy, that's obviously very popular. We also wanted to throw in, I mean, being chiropractors,

we always go against the grain a little bit.

And so we wanted to throw in a couple things that we have done research on and science does back it, it just might not have the spotlight yet. It just, it needs that extra push. And so, yeah, you know, we may get people coming in

that want to do those more traditional biohacking things, and then we'll be like, hey, well, what if you tried this today? And link they can throw it on is like an additional thing, which is why a membership style or packages like we'll allow them to do that.

So again, I would say it's not super popular just yet, but we know that the higher level athletes do do a lot of meditation, a lot of mental health things,

“a lot of getting there frequencies where it needs to be.”

And so we're trying to get the masses ahead of the curve before again, it's like mainstream. So that's kind of the take that we have on it. - All right. And so, I mean, all of this sounds really cool.

It sounds like you're even building the technology as well. Go into that. I mean, it sounds like, wow, okay, not only are you offering,

but you like basically you're building this stuff.

So the recover studio is a marriage between what we did in the corporate realm and what I do on the shockwave therapy side of things. And so none of the therapies that I make are unique. They're not new into the market, right?

Again, I'm more blessed that shockwave and a therapy called EMT team, which is another therapy that we bring to the forefront. It has existed as great research for talking 30, 40 years. It's just not popular here in the States yet.

And it's such a great technology for helping people with chronic pain. And if it can get to be more available where, you know, the car partners of access to a PT's of access to it,

so that the patients of access to it without having to spend thousands of thousands of thousands of dollars, it gives me a real opportunity to insert our technology and our education into those providers so that, you know,

your mom or your dad can come and they can do this before they do surgery, right? And we see so much of jumping from, okay, you know, PT didn't work for me or Cairo didn't work for me, now I need surgery, right?

This sits in that middle in order for us to do that. And so the protocols are ours. The programming is ours, but we're blessed that the technology is proven in all kinds of other places in the world.

And we just are trying to make it more available here in the States. - Yeah. - To go back to the sound, what I just had this thing on my head because you've had to intense birches birches birches.

Yeah, yeah. But I was thinking sound therapies, now I hear headphones on, you know, Mother's Babies, right? - Yeah, yeah. - And the tummies, right?

Is that a thing? Is that something that I did? - And that for myself personally, yes, I do think that, I mean, we used to read stories to my belly all the time, but where we kind of, you know,

one of our businesses is very pediatric focused. The reason that that kind of went that way because we have been blessed. We've done the Olympic athletes. We've done the MLB players and the NHL players.

And we love that, don't get me wrong. But how explore Health and Wellness is kind of pivoted to more of that pediatric is what you said. Like I had two very intense bursts.

The first one, both of our daughters have done

Brain-bleed situation due to a improperly-used vacuum

extraction, I had an infection on my C-section scar and needed an extra surgery for that. It was terrible. But when I had my daughter, she's now five and a half my oldest and had the brain bleed.

We needed the medical interventions. But to get her where she is today, where you don't notice the deficit or you don't notice that that has continued to evolve

“is because we opened it up to the alternative therapy, right?”

So she does read light all the time. That's a great thing for healing. So I had a red light on her when she was literally a baby at home. You know, the hyperbear, how do you--

How do I do that? So the mirror is so many different-- You put your red light mask on. Yeah, I literally-- no, I'm kidding. I did not do that part.

But there's so many different available ones

at home like different shapes. So I do have a red light mask for myself, hopefully it's working for the anti-aging, but I do have a box that we have used before. And I just kind of--

They have different size. That's in the panels, kind of. Yeah, there you go. So we had one-- I don't know, I want to say it was like eight inches by 10 inches.

And it was a perfect amount. I just set it at the proper spot away from her. And she just bathed under the red light. We actually use it on our dogs, too. They're 13 and 12.

They're doing great. Yeah, it's cool. That's a whole different sidebar. But that really helped her heal, you know?

And being in just environments that had good energy,

good frequencies, being positive, all of those types of things. So when we pivoted to explore, it really was because I wanted my daughter to have everything. And so now we're that integrated primary care pediatric. We mix the chirom, we mix the holistic nurse practitioners.

We they're certified in homeyopathy, but then they also can prescribe an antibiotic. Because there is a time in a place.

“Like, I think chiropractors get this bad ret”

that we think we can solve everything. And honestly, in every profession, there's some bad apples. But we really just don't see it that way. We integrate where we need to, and I just think-- You know, everyone's different.

And you got to find what works for you, right? And people are just leaning towards health and wellness because it's like, I don't trust popping pills here, there, especially when we've just been inundated with all these commercials.

And then they're like, side effects of this. And then, like, brimbley. And if you're almost dying, you know what I'm taking these meds. So yeah, just, you know, we're kind of sick of all that, right? Being fed, these red dyes of what they don't have in Europe.

I mean, now with the world cup, right? The Norwegian team, they've brought their all their food, right? Because they just don't trust even these, like, what they have on apples, right? Like, the wax isn't.

It's just like, yeah, it's no, it's nothing new that it's trending, right? So it's like, there's a reason for it. Yeah, you're speaking our language, we feel all of those things. And so, you know, bringing that to especially the younger generation, us millennials, Jen.

Now you're starting away before with your baby, right? There's reason for it. Oh, I understand. Yeah, so I just think that I think society has pivoted so much in the last eight years, but especially since COVID, you know, yes, COVID,

entrepreneurs really was very difficult for us to work through, but I actually feel like that swung the pendulum and in our favor. And now we've just exploded. I mean, all of our businesses, but especially that integrated pediatric one. Yeah, giving providers and other lens too.

So I think I think there's a lot of, you know, to your point, things to swung away from people trusting the medical providers as well, because they were pushing things that they didn't have good information on either. Yeah. But with our experience, you know, both of our businesses,

the care practice side now integrates with the medical team. And we have great medical providers that do see both sides. Hey, there's value in the medicine, there's value in the wellness, you know, from the shockwave perspective, we have orthopedic surgeons, PT's, Chiro's, everybody who's on both sides of that coin,

working together. And so we're starting to see that more providers are open on both sides. So I'd appreciate it. The collaboration I think is going to be a big part of the future. I see more clinics and providers who are multi-disciplinary,

“because that's what patients are looking for.”

They want to have both options. They want to see if I'm in crisis, there's no better place than the states to get emergency medical care. I really am present. Bar none, we crush every other competition, but when it comes to dealing with

chronic pain, I mean, 25% of people in the states deal with chronic pain. We have terrible methods of going about treating them, because all we know is emergency medical, obviously I'm generalizing. So when we see more providers working together for a common goal, we're going to see that the market's going to swing that direction in my opinion.

Yeah. All right, so I asked everyone, what do you guys most excited about? Hmm. Let's the future. I just think I'm excited, not just business-wise, family-wise,

just how we've just talked about the last five minutes is how society has shifted and how much better that's going to make our generation

But it's also shifting in these dangerous ways, right?

So it's shifted toward the health and wellness, right? I'm doing everything organically, but now with this whole looks-maxing thing and shifting into like, okay, choose your bones at home, right? And it's getting like, okay, well, we need professionals still. All right, we need to shift back, right?

Yeah, to this middle, right? Yes, spectrum, everything needs both sides. So we need to be curious, but then you also need to be able to seek out, like, who can help you with that? And 100% especially because we have the term by a hacking right in our facility.

People are like, oh, they're injecting this. Or like you said, they're going to chisel themselves, or they're going to take all their blood out, and they're going to spin it down. And so there's almost too much DIY going on on that side of things too.

And so we need a balance, right? We need something that this is well-vetted, great technology. It's going to help.

“This is not harmful, because that's what we get into.”

Those, those looks-maxing and stuff, right? Because it can be harmful permanently, right? I'm thrilled that we're looking more into, you know, peptides and other options that are non-medical, but same thing people are going too far down the road,

doing too much on their own without some sort of guidance. So I agree, I think there's a healthy medium on both sides. And we should go find out what that is. I think we're trying to figure that out. That's the three different types of businesses we do run.

And, you know, we're just trying to balance that out and collaborate where it needs to be. But also be the answer to that. See people say that are actually helping. Help and not be a problem.

Yeah. Are we going to end this with an ice bath? They're going to-- I wish we had a cold plane.

Yeah, oh my god, I've never done no, I've never done.

I've done a penguin swim, which I was in Antarctica. No, no, no, no. So they got the polar bear plunge, which is way up north of the caravan. In LA, they got the penguins swim, which is like New Year's, right? And, yeah, you swim like a quarter mile, right?

And some people have like wetsuits. I just had my shorts, yeah, just my swim trunks. Because I needed to like, something, you know, to kind of just like, pull me in. Yeah, wake me up, pull me into the New Year.

But I have not yet. I've done an ice, like, I've done a-- at the W Hotel and Group Downtown Brickle. They do have like this hot dip cold dip meal. But it's not like, yeah, that icey kind of Joe Rogan

cold plunge, I think. Well, hopefully you come to Atlanta one day and use ours, or someone will franchise it down here. And you can try it out.

You guys got to look into Miami,

“because this work is like, health and fitness, you know?”

It's got like the branding of like the fast and furious, right? And all that, but when I came down here in South Beach, it's all health and wellness and health and fitness, right? You'll see the locals are the people that are in their gym, outfits and their, you know, whatever.

And they're heading to some kind of fitness class, or they're heading to Pickleball, or they're heading to muscle beach, don't you? Yeah, I heard about that. We had to be having to have to drive by there after this.

But we were in the ocean yesterday. And the ocean was so hot. Like we do need a cold plane chair. Like this ocean was like a bath, this wild. But yeah, no, I think of it.

There's not like the recovery center, right? This gym, this is like, you know, like in a nearby, like, like, circle radius here of circumference. Like I've got like five gym options, right? But nowhere that's offering that.

We're coming. Well, if you're listening to Miami, I think he wants a franchise down here, so reach out. Interesting, the interesting thing about that is that we're one of the only developed nations

that doesn't prioritize rest. Right, we are go-go-go. Like you said, it's hustle and bustle, and we're looking for performance, and we're looking for the edge moving forward.

But we overlook the recovery process. And the lead athletes know, because they have to do it to survive, right? But for us, it's such an important part of the missing link is separating go-go-go from taking enough time

to fill your own cup and then go back after it. It's very underserved, and that's one of the passions for us moving forward with that business

“is that we want that to be part of the culture, right?”

You look at the Japanese culture, rest and relaxation in the spa vibes is huge, and they're still high performers, right? And we miss some community connection if you look at Italy.

Italy is all about community and eating together, and all across that is their rest and relaxation, right? We don't have that in the American side while we're trying to do what they're doing as well, which is performance performance.

So saving people from injuries and moving forward that way, obviously, but building a culture around recovery is huge. Yeah. Well, how could people find you? Oh, you can follow us on Instagram.

You can find our websites. You can listen to us here. Now, there's lots of spines. It depends, right? So providers who are looking to amplify and do what we do.

We have a website link. It's swcaconnect.com/doctordan. You can book with us specifically, but for patients who are clients recover

explore health wellness or go explore health

“is our personal website for that business.”

So yeah, whatever you're into, we have a link for you. Lots of ways.

You can even pick up a phone.

We, he's on the phone all day.

“So talking to people, it's real life really does still”

happen with us, too. So yeah.

Well, yeah, if you guys are interested in,

I mean, we could just talk with them. Like for so long, I could just sit here and talk to you guys, right? And your episode was so interesting.

“But yeah, tune in to, if you want to hear about the story”

of her two birds and they're more about health and fitness and the health and wellness, yeah, tune into their episode, it's really, really interesting. And so thank you guys for joining us here in the South Beach Studios as a pleasure to have you guys.

Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you guys for tuning in. And we'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone.

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