Physical Therapy Archives - Team Athletic Mentors

Overcoming Injury

June 28th, 2024 by JoAnn Cranson

Nearly all athletes will face an injury at some point in their athletic career. Perhaps even multiple injuries. Injuries that keep you from competing at your best are not fun to say the least. At separate times during my junior year, I experienced two stress fractures in my right foot while running track, cross country and playing club soccer. It took me around 4-5 months each to return to my previous level of competition. During this time, I had to adjust my training and lifestyle to recover. Here are 5 tips I found helpful in overcoming injury:

Seek out Professional Medical Help

This may seem like an obvious step, but often people avoid the doctor because they think their injury isn’t serious. However, it is imperative to seek out professional advice if the injury is persistent and prevents you from competing or training at your best. Doctors can help keep you from making the injury worse and can provide insight into the root cause of the injury (if it isn’t obvious already). Doctors can also refer you to specialists or physical therapists to help meet your specific needs. Doctors also have access to equipment such as MRIs or X-Rays that determine the severity of the injury.

Physical Therapy

Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with physical therapy. It is helpful for building your strength back up, however it can be difficult, even frustrating, when you do not see results right away. PT is often a slow process that requires patience, but staying consistent pays off. Also, when you go to PT, you have a Physical Therapist who will monitor your progress to ensure you recover as quickly as possible from your injury. PT is also helpful for the mental side of injuries. When I was dealing with my stress fractures, it was encouraging to be doing something about my injury. For me, PT was one of the most important steps in overcoming injury.

Cross Train

Like PT, cross training was helpful for staying positive during recovery. While PT is more injury specific exercises, cross training can help with general strength. Exercise is shown to improve mood, cognitive function, sleep quality, etc. Even if you cannot do your sport, there are low impact options like swimming, biking, or weight lifting that may allow you to be active during injury. Before starting any cross training however, it is important to talk with your doctor about which exercises you can do without upsetting recovery. If you experience discomfort with your injury even in cross training, it is important to stop. It is not worth prolonging an injury.

Stay Active in Team Events

Even though you might not be able to compete, you can still show up for your teammates! One silver lining with having an injury meant that I could now cheer on my teammates that I normally was racing with. Even though you want to be competing, if you are faced with an injury outside of your control, you should focus on what you can control such as using energy to support the team. Athletic Mentors has countless volunteer events to partake in where you can spend some energy for the team’s sake. This kind of support is important in establishing a positive team environment. Also, if it were the other way around, you would likely want your teammates cheering you on too.

Rest

Rest is not always what we want to do as athletes but when dealing with an injury, it is the most important thing. Your body cannot heal if you continue to break it down by training or competing. You may think that it isn’t a big deal if you just push through the pain, but when making the decision to race or rest, you need to think about the long term impact. Serious athletes need to remember that just because the short term self might be fine if you ignore the pain, your long term self may end up dealing with a worse injury. The only way you can heal is if you give your body the time to heal. Some of the most common injuries that athletes face are caused by overuse. Getting an overuse injury is your body telling you that it needs rest. Listen to it!

It is discouraging when injuries prevent us from taking part in the sport we love, but implementing each of these steps can help you focus on what you can control (getting rest, doing PT, going to team events, etc.). Remember that the injury and pain is temporary. Your body will heal itself, it just needs you to look out for it. Choosing to take care of the long-term athlete by following each of these steps will help you make a full recovery.

How do you “Armor” up for your Key Race? Rehab with Armor PT!

October 24th, 2022 by JoAnn Cranson

By: Kathy Braginton

As I limped my way to my car for the 2nd time in 2022, having just completed a 5k, I knew I needed to seek the advice of a professional. A 5k should not hurt as much as this and require a 4-day recovery period. With my goal race being in August and the race season still early, I turned to Armor Physical Therapy where Scott Miller, PT and his team of sports performance rehabilitation specialists went to work on my injury.

One of the initial benefits of Armor is the ability to book an appointment without needing a referral from your primary care physician. I was allowed 10 visits over a 21-day period which allowed time for an initial assessment, manual therapy, and rehabilitation as we sought approval for continual therapy. With each sports performance rehabilitation treatment I have sought with Armor over the years, initial diagnosis has been a lack of glute activation. My injury this time around was no exception. My hamstring and low back muscles were doing all the work and the nerves between the glute and hamstring were angry.

The therapists at Armor quickly went to work to create a program that was customized to my specific condition, needs and goals. The program included manual therapy, stretching and strengthening exercises, and a home exercise program.

With each visit, therapists used manual therapy for a hands-on treatment to remediate body functions. The manual therapy (aka massage) was the best portion of each treatment.

Stretching and strengthening exercises to improve flexibility, boost joint range of motion, strengthen muscles, and most importantly get my glutes firing again. Here is a sampling of a few of the strengthening exercises.

Exercise 1 – “The warm-up” – Total gym, banded squats

Exercise 2 – “The balancing act” – Rocker board with kettlebell arm swings

Exercise 3 – “The sobriety test” – alternating step-ups with a liquid-filled PVC

Exercise 4 – “Burn booty burn” – single-leg stability ball airplanes. Front view

Exercise 4 – “Burn booty burn” – single-leg stability ball airplanes. Back view

*Note – Armor is not responsible for the content of my exercise descriptions! 😉

Dry Needling

Armor offers a wide variety of additional services in their sports performance rehabilitation: Dry Needling, Gait/running evaluations, custom foot orthotics, and AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill, just to name a few. For a full list of Armor’s treatment options, visit https://armorpt.com. As a part of my customized plan, I utilized the Dry Needling and the Orthotics. With dry needling, the needles are used to stimulate an area of muscles that have become stiff. The special needles can reach areas that other manual therapies cannot. After each treatment, I found I had improved flexibility and range of motion. As a side note, the dry needling and orthotics are not covered under insurance but can be paid for through an HSA account. I found the benefits of both services to be well worth any additional costs.

With my diligence in attending weekly in office sessions, as well as, continuing home exercises, Scott and his team at Armor Physical Therapy, had me running pain-free by my goal race in August.

Virtual Care by Armor Physical Therapy

April 29th, 2020 by JoAnn Cranson

By Kathy Braginton

Armor Physical Therapy is a comprehensive orthopedic and sports physical therapy clinic serving the greater Kalamazoo area. Armor has the only Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Sports Physical Therapy in the Southwest Michigan Area, Scott Miller. Scott and his team at Armor have been helping patients reach their full potential for over 13 years. Armor is also an active sponsor of Team Athletic Mentors.

During this unprecedented time, it is important to support our local businesses. Armor is still open and currently seeing patients. Their primary concern is the health and safety of their staff and patients. Therefore, they have been actively monitoring and following the CDC guidelines in order to refine their procedures and provide safeguards in response to the coronavirus outbreak. They have modified safety policies regarding patient screenings, as well as, sanitizing policies for patients and equipment. They have limited the number of patients allowed in the clinic and are requiring their staff to wear masks.

One of the great advantages of Armor Physical Therapy is their Direct Access. Most insurances will allow you direct access to Armor, which means you do not need a referral from your primary care physician. This is extremely advantageous today. Armor is highly recommending you stay away from Urgent Care facilities or ER’s and come straight to them. After completing the GR Half distance triathlon last year, I was able to take advantage of Armor’s Direct Access option. I was experiencing knee pain and knew I needed to have it evaluated before continuing my training. By not having to see my primary care physician first, I was able to save time and money. Scott and his team at Armor had me back on track with my training schedule in no time.

Armor is now offering Virtual Care featuring one-on-one video call appointments as an alternative to in-clinic visits. They achieve the virtual connection through the HIPAA-compliant BetterPT platform. BetterPT is a secure video communication platform designed with virtual physical therapy services in mind. The use of BetterPT, gives their therapists the ability to guide you through live therapeutic exercises and stretches while monitoring your progress. Most major insurance carriers cover virtual physical therapy the same way they cover an in-person visit, without the need for a referral. For more information, visit the Armor Virtual Care web page https://armorpt.com/virtualcare/.

In addition to the Virtual Care PT, Scott is rolling out a new program that will allow virtual video running gait analysis via their TeleHealth format. This service will provide the athlete with all the instructions to submit their video for review allowing Armor to provide recommendations on form, footwear, exercises, and more. See flyer below for additional information.

There are hundreds of reasons patients require physical therapy, but the one place to turn to for quality care is Armor Physical Therapy. Visit https://armorpt.com/ today to request an appointment.