Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine

Physical therapy provides our patients with services that help restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit the physical disabilities of patients suffering from injuries or disease.  The purpose of treatment is to restore, maintain, and promote overall fitness and health.

Sports Medicine is a combination of therapies selected to treat specific sports injuries.  Active Health specializes in soft tissue injuries or muscle sprain/strains.  Due to the demands athletics takes on the body, injury is common and must be managed appropriately and aggressively to get you back in action.  Many athletes choose to receive treatment pro-actively.  Tight or injured muscles, tendons or ligaments may lead to dysfunction, a loss in performance and increased rate of injury.

Electrical stimulation uses an electrical current to cause a single muscle or a group of muscles to contract. By placing electrodes on the skin in various locations the physical therapist can recruit the appropriate muscle fibers. Contracting the muscle via electrical stimulation helps strengthen the affected muscle. Along with increasing muscle strength, the contraction of the muscle also promotes blood supply to the area that assists in healing.

Therapeutic Ultrasound is used as a treatment modality that has been used by therapists over the last 50 years to treat soft tissue injuries. Ultrasonic waves (sound waves of a high frequency) are produced by means of mechanical vibration of the metal treatment head of the ultrasound machine. This treatment head is then moved over the surface of the skin in the region of the injury. When sound waves come into contact with air it causes a dissipation of the waves, and so a special ultrasound gel is placed on the skin to ensure maximal contact between the treatment head and the surface of the skin.

Moist Heat is used as a pre-treatment method to soften muscles. This makes treatment more comfortable for the patient. Icing is recommended after treatment and for acute injuries.

Home stretches and exercises are given to  our patients on an condition specific basis that can be done at home to speed up your recovery from injury and make the treatments we offer in the office more effective. Home exercise and stretching is a key factor when preventing re-injury. Each patient is given a customized home stretching program at an appropriate time in their treatment plan.  This specialized exercise program is meant to re-establish proper strength in specific muscles and appropriate flexibility in others.  Establishing proper joint motion allows us to actually re-train our muscles to move correctly which prevents injury.

Assisted Stretching is currently the fastest and most effective way known to increase muscle flexibility. It actually combines passive stretching and isometric stretching to achieve maximum static flexibility. During passive stretching, the client assumes a position which is then held by the therapist. During isometric stretching, the patient is motionless while stretching with tensing of the stretched muscles against resistance.