Sports Injury Rehab
Need Help Recovering from a Sports Injury? Looking to Improve Your Sports Performance?
If you are a youth, collegiate, elite, or professional athlete, when you are injured, you need a physical therapist with experience rehabilitating sports-related injuries.
Athletes place higher demands on the muscles and joints and also require sport-specific training to recover speed, power, and agility. This is the specific training that the therapists at ProHealth Oshawa Physiotherapy & Rehab provide.
Our Physiotherapist have years of experience rehabilitating athletes with:
- Postsurgical rehabilitation of the knee, shoulder, ankle, hip, and spine
- Shoulder & rotator cuff injuries
- Ligament sprains
- Muscle strains
- ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL rehab
- Tendonitis/bursitis
- Post-fracture rehab
- Tennis elbow
- Overhead sports injuries (throwing, swimming, etc.)
- Running & cycling injuries
A Personalized Recovery Process
The process starts with a thorough evaluation of your condition and your personal goals. We then provide a custom program including the following:
- Control of Pain & Inflammation
- Recovery of Range of Motion
- Hands-on Techniques
- Neuromuscular Retraining
- Core & Extremity Strengthening
- Balance & Proprioceptive Activities
- Speed, Endurance, & Power Training
- Sport-specific Retraining
Optimizing the Recovery Process
Injuries are an unfortunate side effect of sports but they don’t have to sideline you indefinitely. With the application of the latest clinical research, we can work hand-in-hand with your referring physician/surgeon to optimize the recover process so you can reach your full potential.
Give us a call today to learn more about our sports rehabilitation program.
During the first few days, if an edge of the tape has begun to lift, it can be trimmed. Rounding the edges may help prevent the edges from lifting prematurely. To dry tape after exercising, swimming or showering, pat gently with a towel. Do not use a hair dryer, because the adhesive is heat-activated and may become difficult to remove.
Kinesio® Tape is applied in five general cuts or techniques:
- The “Y” cut is most commonly used. It is used for muscles, like the deltoid (the muscle forming the rounded contour of the shoulder), so that it can surround the muscle to inhibit or facilitate stimuli.
- The “I” cut is used for acute injuries in small or linear places primarily for edema (a collection of fluid in the spaces between cells of the body – swelling) and pain. For example, an I-shaped piece of tape can be applied to the teres minor (the muscle that laterally rotates the arm and assists in bringing it toward the body) or rhomboid minor (a small skeletal muscle on the back that connects the scapula with the vertebrae of the spinal column).
- The “X” cut is used for muscles that change depending on movement, such as the biceps femoris (a two-headed muscle located on the back of the thigh, which causes both hip extension and knee flexion).
- The “Fan” cut provides large coverage area and flexible positioning of the tape, which helps facilitate and channel the lymph drainage more effectively and decrease edema (swelling). It is commonly used for treating lymphedema (a back up or congestion of lymphatic fluid) because the Kinesio Tape allows for greater drain of the lymph, and as the body moves, the tape acts as a pump continually stimulating the lymph circulation on a 24hr/day basis. The “Web” cut is just a modified fan cut, where both base ends are left intact with strips being cut in the middle part of the Kinesio strip.
- The “Donut” cut is primarily used for edema in a focal or sport specific area. Overlapping strips are used and the center is cut over the area being treated.
Correct tension is also key to success with Kinesio Taping:
- For muscles that are injured or overused, needing relief and healing from pain and tightness, the tape is applied with no tension, starting from the tendons that hold the muscle to the bone and extending toward the origin of the muscle.
- For chronically injured or weakened muscles, needing support and full range of motion, the tape is applied with light tension, starting from the origin of the muscle and extending toward the tendons that hold the muscle to the bone.
In some cases, the treatment of a patient’s condition may also require treatment of other underlying conditions. The Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner (CKTP) may need to perform assessments to include manual muscle testing, range of motion (ROM) testing, gait assessment, and any other orthopedic special tests that may be necessary in order for him or her to determine the best treatment for the patient’s needs.
Before the tape is applied, the Certified Kinesio Tape Practitioner assures that the patient’s skin is clean and free of oils, sweat and lotions. Otherwise the tape will lose its adhesive abilities. After application, the practitioner rubs the tape to activate the heat sensitive glue. Approximately 30 to 60 minutes is required for the glue to become fully activated before the patient can become physically active or shower. If activity occurs prior to this time, the tape may come off.
Small amounts of body hair will not interfere with the effectiveness or adhesion of the tape. However, areas with significant amounts of hair should be clipped or shaved for best results and less pain when the tape is removed.
It is important to apply the Kinesio strip with the correct degree of tension. If too much tension is applied, the effects are diminished. It is better not to have enough tension than too much. This is why it is important to have the Kinesio Tape applied by a Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and only after a proper evaluation of your condition has been performed by qualified health professionals.
Traditionally, athletes or others with muscle injuries would tape a muscle or joint to restrict motion and prevent further injury. Kinesiology taping takes the opposite approach, using the tape to open up the muscle and allow full movement.
Removing tape is best done by a Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner (CKTP) to reduce the risk of re-injury or causing new injuries (as a result of incorrect removal). It is generally much easier to do when the patient has bathed or the tape is moist. The practitioner will remove the tape from the top down, in the direction of the body hair to limit any discomfort and skin irritation.