I talk with many patients every single week about physical therapy and what experiences they've had outside of working with me inside my clinic.
It never surprises me when a patient tells me that they've had an experience where they feel like their athlete brain and getting back to sport are ignored. They are told to just stop doing their sport because their body is hurting while they do their sport, so if they get rid of the sport that they love, they will then ultimately feel good.
I actually don't think that's a solution, and that's coming from someone who is an athlete herself. I grew up an athlete, and I continue to train like an athlete.
Just like you, assuming I'm speaking to an athlete, I would be incredibly frustrated if an ache or a pain or an injury was something that was utilized as a way to get me to stop doing something that I absolutely love.
I truly do not think that the answer is to just remove the sport from a person's life, whether that person is a young athlete, a high school athlete, a college athlete, an adult weekend warrior, or someone who just has a hobby that they really truly enjoy.
At the heart of it, physical therapy should be utilized as a way to get you back to whatever it is you love doing, whether that is:
running
playing pickleball
playing with your grandkids
going to work and feeling good
traveling
swimming
walking on the beach, etc.
…it shouldn't be utilized as a space to downplay the seriousness of not being able to do whatever it is you love. The mental health aspect of having a hobby or physical activity is incredibly understated, and on top of that, staying physically active as you get older is important for overall health.
For young kids or high school athletes, while I understand that sports should not be their life, there are so many valuable lessons that are learned by being an athlete and being a member of a team, as well as competition and thriving inside an environment where you have to work hard in order to succeed.
I want to just briefly talk about what physical therapy should look like if you are an athlete and how I design my sessions around my athletes.
How I Like To Begin PT
Whenever an athlete comes to see me, I like to start off by understanding them as a person and as an athlete.
What sport did they play?
What position do they play?
How often do they play?
Do they have an offseason, like a true offseason, or do they just have a couple of weeks between high school and club sports?
Are they a weekend warrior?
Are they someone who feels like they don't have the capacity to be more than a weekend warrior, but you want to be?
What goals to they have?
My goal is to always understand my athletes inside and out when I first start working with them.
And on top of that, I need to know the athlete's history:
How long have they played a sport?
How many injuries have they had?
What injuries have they had?
Have they had surgery?
Do they have a mental health component that is going unaddressed?
Do they go to school or work?
Is their job demanding if they are an adult?
What is home life like?
Do they have kids?
And then, of course, I always like to learn about my clients or my patients as people:
What helps them learn best?
What will make them feel like they are cared about?
What experiences have been less than optimal in the past, and how can I make this experience better for them?
Are finances a concern?
All of these things play into how I will design sessions and treatment lengths. More is not always better. Less is not always better, and supplementation can sometimes be more valuable than replacement if you are super active already. At any rate, I need to know who exactly my athlete is as a person before we can begin, and I can design a program or rehab plan that will work for you.
What PT Sessions Look Like
If you were to ask me what a physical therapy session looked like for a patient, I would tell you that they are different every single day and every single time. The one thing that is consistent is that you are not going to be coming into sessions doing things that you could have just done at home.
I hear pretty regularly that my patients appreciate that I utilize every minute of the session to give them valuable information and to help them continue to progress accordingly.
My sessions are focused on:
continued reassessment
sports-specific exercises
progressing exercises accordingly, ensuring that as we progress each exercise, your form continues to be optimal
assessing any aches or pains that come up throughout treatment when you come in each session, even if they are different from what you came in for before
I also take the time to explain everything that I'm doing so that you know why exactly you're doing a specific exercise in a specific way.
The goal is to always get you back to what you expressed you want to get back to, or to make you an even better athlete than when you came in. I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions about physical therapy: you don't have to wait until you are hurt in order to see me. I also design performance programs that will help you maximize your potential as an athlete.
Physical therapy care does not need to be reactive. It can actually be proactive and preventative. It's just that most times, prevention doesn't really stick at the top of people's minds. You only think about needing help when you are having pain or you got hurt.
So if you come to see me and we're working on performance-based care, then you can expect our sessions to be looking pretty similar to what your sport looks like.
How Often I Schedule Sessions
Because you're an athlete and you're already active, I know that you will do your homework.
Most of my patients see me one time a week and no more than that. In between the sessions, you will have homework, but I don't need to see you three times a week for 12 weeks, as it is typically scheduled on a physical therapy referral.
How Long My Athletes See Me
This is truly person-to-person dependent. Some of my patients will see me for 3 to 6 months. Some of my patients see me monthly. Some of my patients see me weekly for 6 months, 9 months, 10 months.
What I'm getting at here is that it is truly dependent on your injury, your situation (both financial and sports-specific situation), as well as what your goals are.
If you're coming to see me for performance-based care, sometimes that can be a shorter total length of time that we will work directly together, and we can work at a distance with specific strength programming.
If you're going through an injury that requires more attention and time, I can help you along that recovery process, but tissue healing is something that is what it is biologically, we can’t rush that or make it happen faster, so you will need more time. This means you might be seeing me for 3 to 6 months in order to get back to sport.
For someone who has gone through ACL rehab, I would say that you can expect to need treatment for about a year, but that doesn't mean that you will see me every single week for that entire year.
What I think is helpful to know is that everything is specific to what you need and what we talk about in that first session, as well as every session thereafter. We can always tailor your treatment and treatment sessions to be a little bit more spread out if needed and if appropriate. At the end of the day, it's about what works best for you, your life, your schedule, and your sport
Nothing is generic or cookie-cutter or protocol-driven (except for post-op, of course. If your surgeon has a protocol, then we have to tailor your treatment to said protocol.)
As far as session duration, how many sessions you need to see me, how we spread them out, and how many sessions you'll need, it is so dependent on everything about you as a human and your sport, as well as your injury or performance goal you have. Specificity is always key.
How to Get Started
If you are interested in getting started with physical therapy treatment at my clinic and are local to Kennewick or in the Tri-Cities area, I would love to work with you.
I offer free discovery calls so you can ask any questions before you get started. I also have super transparent pricing, and you can find all of my pricing and session rates on this page.
You can see more information about the specific sports that I work with on their corresponding pages. You'll see information about soccer players, runners, baseball and softball, and hockey players. I've also worked with lacrosse athletes and football players. If you play a sport not listed here, feel free to just book a discovery call, and I can give you more information so we can decide if we're a fit.
My goal is to provide the best sports rehab for injured athletes and sports-specific performance care to help athletes excel and play the sport they love. Think stronger, faster, more resilient.
No one wants to sit out of practice or miss games. No one wants to decline a group run because their body hurts. No one wants to miss out on a hike because they know they either won’t be able to move the next day or they think their knees can’t handle it. No pitcher wants to sit out of the starting rotation because their shoulder just couldn’t hold up (again). Soccer athletes don’t want to just “wing it” when it comes to ACL tear prevention, which can be a career ending injury for any athlete.
I get it and I want to help you get stronger and have a more resilient body so you can do what you love.