Contact and Sports Injuries
Helping you return to the activities you love
Participating in athletics or recreational activities is an exceptional way to exercise, spend time with friends and have fun - and for some people, it's their livelihood. However, an injury can quickly sideline your participation. Our sports physical therapy experts at SSM Health Physical Therapy are committed to helping identify your injury or source of pain and developing a personalized treatment plan to get you back to your activities as soon as possible.
What you can expect
Our therapists are passionate about getting you back to the activities you love, as many of them are athletes as well. Your initial appointment is an evaluation. Your physical therapist will listen and learn how your injury occurred and discuss your recent health history and normal activity level. Our therapist will assess your injury and determine which joints, tendons, bones or muscles are affected.
During this visit, our goal is to establish a trusting relationship, understand your injury and create a recovery roadmap that gets you back to your activities pain-free. Your treatment plan will be developed based on specific clinical protocols from your physical therapist and your overall goals.
If you haven't visited a doctor prior to seeing us, we will perform screening tests to help evaluate injuries to your joints, muscles or ligaments. Once we make a diagnosis, we want you to begin treatment as soon as possible to help you return to your activities.
In addition to using hands-on techniques and sport-specific exercises during your treatment, we often use modern technology to analyze your movement patterns and identify deficits. A movement screen using the dorsaVi™ Movement Suite and ViPerform™ Athletic Movement Index™ allows us to measure range of motion, acceleration and muscle activity on different parts of your body.
After a thorough assessment, your therapist may recommend one or more of the following treatment methods to alleviate your pain, enhance recovery and get you back to activity:
- Home exercise program: a tailored exercise routine targeting your specific injury along with instructions on how to properly perform each exercise
- Electrical stimulation: a technique that uses electrical impulses to fuel muscle contractions that promote healing.
- Heat and/or cold treatment: the use of ice or heat (or both) to reduce inflammation and alleviate pain.
- Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization: a method of massage using specially designed stainless steel instruments to allow direct treatment of muscles, fascia, ligaments and tendons.
- Personalized blood flow restriction therapy: a technique using compression cuffs placed around a patient's limb(s) to help increase strength with low-intensity exercise.
- Cupping therapy: a mobilization technique using small suction cups to treat pain, inflammation, stiffness and blood flow restrictions.
- Dry needling: treatment focused on trigger points in the muscle to help decrease pain and improve movement
You can expect physical therapy two to three times per week for over 30 days. Visits may vary depending on your situation and the status of your injury. For example, recovering after a torn ACL or reconstructive shoulder surgery takes considerably longer than recovering from an ankle or wrist sprain.
For more information, please contact us at [email protected].
Your Therapy... Our PassionTM