We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Morgan Riggins, Pt, Dpt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Morgan below.
Dr. Morgan , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I come from a long line of educators–my grandma on my dad’s side, my grandma on my mom’s side, my step-grandma on my dad’s side, my mom, and my aunt.
My mom always said that I would end up a teacher, too. Although I tutored my peers in highschool and worked as a writing tutor in college, I never pursued a career in teaching. Or so I thought…
After highschool, I went to Hartwick College in upstate New York to swim and study biology on the pre-med track. It took three hard winters of swimming and studying for me to realize I did not have a good reason to go to medical school. I ended up graduating a semester early with a degree in biology and English and returned home to Austin, TX to figure out my next move. I was passionate about exercise and I dabbled with the idea of getting a Master’s in exercise physiology, but my dad read that the physical therapy profession was anticipated to grow by 30% according to his latest Business Weekly. This sparked the idea of applying to physical therapy school.
For a year, I worked and saved money, completed pre-requisite courses, shadowed physical therapists, and applied to 9 programs in Texas. I completed my clinical doctorate from Texas State University and started practicing in an outpatient sports clinic in Austin, TX. I immediately went on to pursue a fellowship in orthopedic manual therapy while working full-time in order to specialize in orthopedic physical therapy.
After 6 years of physical therapy education, I learned a lot and wanted to share so much with my clients–but there was not enough time to do it. In traditional insurance-based clinics, physical therapists have to juggle multiple clients in order to see enough clients to break even. I saw 15 clients for 30 minutes each on the treatment table while I supervised another client doing their exercises across the room. The more I learned about tissue healing, movement retraining, and pain science education, the more I realized that I did not have enough time to teach my clients everything they needed to know.
In May of 2022, I got a phone call from a local gym owner to see if I was interested in starting a physical therapy clinic within his gym. I had absolutely no idea how I would do it or what it would look like, but I said yes.
Fast forward to September of 2024 and OPAL Movement Therapy is operating smoothly within the Bodies By Design Workout Room community. We have two physical therapists and an administrative assistant. We work with our clients one-on-one for a full hour in a quiet environment where they can ask as many questions as they want and we can teach them everything they need to know about their injury and plan for recovery. We do not take insurance, which gives us the gift of time.
We have time to get our anatomy books out and use our anatomical models to help educate our clients. We take pictures and videos of how they move and we discuss how their movement can impact their injuries. We draw pictures of optimal movement and outline treatment plans together. We teach free workshops on injury prevention and performance to the public and we share resources and videos on Instagram and our website. We work with clients in-person and remotely and we help connect people with local physical therapists if they are searching for physical therapy in their area.
My purpose is helping people understand HOW to move better.
I found it with the help of my dad pushing me to pick a growing profession and the women in my life who demonstrated the importance of giving to others through learning and teaching. I am so grateful that my family and education prepared me so well to teach others and empower them to move better.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
At OPAL Movement Therapy, we believe there are five movement principles that everyone should know in order to move optimally and prevent injuries.
1) How to Hip Hinge
2) How to Upwardly Rotate Your Shoulder Blade
3) How to Find Neutral Spine
4) How to Move Your Hip Without Moving Your Low Back
5) How to Stack Your Pelvis, Hip, Knee, & Ankle
We are passionate about teaching these principles to our clients and community in-person and online because we find that these are the concepts we have to work on the most when helping people reduce pain, recover from injuries, and improve performance. If everyone learned how to do these 5 things, we could prevent a lot of injuries and empower people to move better for longer!
Check out this video to learn more about the 5 Movement Principles That Everyone Should Master: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9XcKI0As2n/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Integrity
Integrity is my most sacred value. I firmly believe in the power of my word and if I say I am going to do something, then I do it. If I don’t, then I have to acknowledge I broke my integrity and remedy it going forward. This value has been critical in my journey. I think about all the times I woke up early for swim practice, studied late at night in the library, finished homework after I put the kids to sleep when babysitting, got an early workout in before a full day of fellowship training on the weekend, emailed a patient back on a Sunday, worked on a flight during vacation…none of these things would have happened without my commitment to my integrity. Someone once told me that your level of integrity is equivalent to the level of the game you want to play. If you want to play big, then you better have integrity even on the smallest level. If you don’t do the dishes when you say you will, how will you maintain integrity on a larger level?
2) Humility
Humility is critical. I picked a field where I will never know everything and I am constantly reminded of how much I don’t know. This helps me continue to be a lifelong learner. I will forever be learning how to be a better clinician, business owner, leader, partner, daughter, sister, etc. This gives me room for growth and an open mind to learn from others and become the best version of me.
3) Joy
Not everyone gets to pursue a career they love and have fun with. I am so lucky that physical therapy and movement bring me so much joy and I get to share that joy daily with others. It’s so much more fun this way and it really helps to love your craft–especially on the hard days.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
“The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson is one of the most impactful books I have read in the last two years. It was recommended to me by a close friend and mentor who reads it every December.
“The Slight Edge” talks about how it is so easy to do the things that make us successful that it is just as easy to not do them. It’s the same with the things that bring us closer to failure. Small actions over time can accumulate and bring us closer to success, or closer to failure.
As a physical therapist, this resonates strongly with me. With tissue healing, the majority of tissue injuries heal by 50% in the first two weeks, 80% in 6 weeks, and 100% by 12 weeks post-injury. This means that it can take an average of three months to rehabilitate an injury, and it can often be longer depending on how chronic the condition is, the client’s past medical history, and the activities they want to get back to. This means that the little things we do in the first 2-3 weeks like pain reduction, patient education, mobility drills, and strength training will slowly compound over the course of 12 weeks so we can get them closer to pre-injury activity levels. When you are dealing with an injury, it can be frustrating and limiting and it is hard to see an end in sight. It can be helpful to acknowledge the small wins and measurable progress day by day and week by week. This is the slight edge concept in action.
As a business owner, “The Slight Edge” inspires me. It means that one small action done consistently over time can have a huge impact on the trajectory of our business and how many people we can help. It could be sending out a biweekly newsletter, posting a video daily on Instagram, or meeting up with a running group once a week. Over time, these small actions translate to more resources for our OPAL community, more in-person and remote clients that we get to help move better, and more value we can provide to our profession.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.opalmovementtherapy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opalmovementtherapy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opalmovementtherapy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-morgan-riggins-pt-dpt-faaompt?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Image Credits
AzulOx Visuals
Gabriel Phelan
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
