Athletic Therapists (AT) are highly educated and trained healthcare professionals who clinically treat patients of all ages using the Sports Medicine Model. The Sports Medicine Model focuses on prevention, early intervention, accurate diagnosis, and research-based rehabilitation, with patients taking an active approach to recovery.
One of the benefits of this approach is that it offers accelerated rehabilitation of physical injuries incurred from sports, recreation, daily living, and occupational accidents.
Now that you know how beneficial an AT can be for you, you’re probably wondering when to go see one. If you fit any of the below scenarios, book in with an Athletic Therapist at your earliest convenience. See an AT if:
You’re injured not just hurt
You need to compensate or ask for help to perform routine tasks.
Nothing else is working for you
You have attempted all the tips, exercises and stretches your coworker suggested when they had a similar pain and nothing is helping.
At this point booking in with an Athletic Therapist would be strongly suggested. In addition to in-session treatment, the therapist can better guide you as to what specific home program will help you heal and get back to your regular activities. It is important to note your body is a complex system and often times, you may feel pain in one area but the root cause is coming from a totally different body part. For example, some knee pain may be due to issues in the pelvis. So, in this case, the knee exercises you saw in that YouTube video will not resolve your ailment. Athletic Therapists are trained at zooming out and looking at the whole picture.
Your goal is prevention and optimization
You have physical goals and you want to ensure your body is primed and up for the task.
Whether you are starting training for your first 10K run, getting ready to join a sports league or starting a physically demanding job, booking in with an Athletic Therapist can be extremely beneficial to help prevent injuries from occurring. For various reasons, your body may have developed compensations that could lead to injuries if put under repetitive stress. An Athletic Therapist can suss those compensations out, address them as necessary, and get your body back to optimal function for whatever your goals may be.
At the end of the day if you want to feel better, if you want to see changes, or if you want to prevent future problems…go see an AT near you.
Mina Fadol
After working as an athletic therapist at the university and collegiate sport levels at Mount Royal University and SAIT, Mina is now treating privately.