Michael Reeves PT, DPT, ATC, CSCS

How I Rehabbed My Quad Contusion in 1 Week Recently I sustained an impact injury to my right thigh. I thought it might be worthwhile to write down what the injury recovery process looked like for me so it might help others who either treat this injury, or deal with this injury themselves, in the future. I was at a beach Ultimate Frisbee tournament and earlier on in the tournament I either caught a knee, or landed on my right quad (vastus lateralis) at some point earlier in the day because I started to feel a little bit of pain when walking after about our 2nd or 3rd game of the day. This did not bother me and it was not going to affect my ability to play at all.  In the 4th game of the day, I dove to try and catch a disc thrown by my teammate (:16 in video below) and landed directly on the spot that was previously bothering me. This time however, there was a very high level of pain and I immediately called for an injury.  I took about 15 seconds to get my legs back under me an...

ACL Rehab for the Athlete: What Should it Look Like? If you have suffered and ACL injury, you likely know that you have a long road ahead of you before you even think about playing sports again.  After an ACL reconstruction, you will need to undergo at least 9 months of rehab before returning to sport.  During these months you will go through many different stages of rehab each with a different primary focus.   According to an  ACL Rehab Guide  published in 2013, there are 5 phases of rehab: Recovery from Surgery Strength and Neuromuscular Control Running, Agility, and Landings Return to Sport Prevention Re-injury You will notice that there is no time frame on the phases. This is to limit progression for the sake of progression at different time points.  Time post surgery progression has the potential to shift focus off of the goals of our rehab as outlined in the various stages and onto time since surgery.  Time since surgery is ...

Where Traditional Physical Therapy Fails the Athlete When an athlete gets hurt, their first thought is rarely “how long until I can walk again?” - it is normally, “how long until I can play again?” If an athlete needs rehab, they are trusting their physical therapist to get them back to playing their sport. Physical therapists are supposed to be the best at this, right? Well unfortunately you need to make sure that you go to the right physical therapist at the right location if you want your needs as an athlete to be met. Just because a physical therapy clinic says “sports medicine” on their doors, does not mean that you are getting quality sports medicine care. Many of the larger physical therapy companies have huge amounts of overhead, and with insurance reimbursement declining for physical therapy, their clinicians are forced to treat more patients in order to keep the company afloat. This means less time with each patient. Also, these companies are big businesses that cr...