If you’re recovering from a sports injury and want to resume your favorite activities, it pays to be careful and do the right things, whether you’re a highly invested athlete or weekend warrior.
If you’ve suffered an accidental injury or are recovering from surgery, your doctor’s orders may be to take it easy.
But how long can you do this before you pine for your most-loved recreational pastimes or you go crazy — whichever comes first?
At Empire Physical Therapy & Athletic Rehabilitation, our physical therapists, Billy Reilly, MS, PT, and Paul LaRosa, MS, PT, are dedicated to helping you heal properly from painful conditions.
They help with such conditions as tendonitis, rotator cuff pain, and ACL tears, all of which can develop as a result of playing sports.
They also help patients recover from surgeries like knee, shoulder, and hip replacement, making it possible for those patients to enjoy playing again without movement limitations and pain.
Our team does more than offer advanced treatment for painful problems. We consider helping you recover and preventing future injury equally important, so you can get back in the game.
At Empire, we have a set of universal recommendations we give to patients, no matter how severe the injury they’re healing from was.
As you contemplate becoming active again, it pays to discuss the steps you can take to prevent a similar injury in the future.
Commit to having a conversation with our team about your treatment plan and aftercare recommendations. We will likely give you exercises to do at home for strength and flexibility. Doing them helps you return to your favorite activities and minimize your chances of future injury.
You might be impatient to get back at it again and have fun, but if you haven’t allowed yourself enough opportunity to heal, you might go right back to where you started — and in an injured state — which would be a monumental disappointment.
Consider what activities you want to do after you’ve healed, and ask key questions, like:
As you heal, we generally advise that you start out with activities at about 50% of the challenge and intensity as before your injury, and then — if you don’t suffer any setbacks — increase your activity level by 10-15% each ensuing week.
Another essential: Warm up and cool down before and after your workout.
We’re fans of cross-training because demanding things from all parts of your body means you don’t put undue stress on just one spot, which increases your risk of injury.
Mixing it up by engaging in both low- and high-impact activities helps you gain strength and lower your risk of reinjuring yourself, yet you’re keeping active.
Remember the old (and inaccurate) adage, “No pain, no gain”? When you’re recovering from an injury and returning to your activities, the opposite is true. The worst thing you can do is challenge yourself too much and ignore your body’s warnings. It’s a recipe for serious pain.
Your physical therapist tailors your recovery plan to you and you alone.
Our therapists draw on their knowledge of your condition and the many innovative treatment methods they offer — including hands-on physical therapy and ultrasound therapy — to fully restore your mobility and keep you pain-free.
We know how eager you are to get back to challenging yourself again, and we can help fully rehabilitate you.
In New York City, you’ll find our office in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood. Call us at 607-602-1330 to set up an appointment and get on the road to recovery.
