Maximizing your child’s chance of earning a college scholarship

ONE person has the final decision in determining if your athlete will receive a scholarship to play college sports. The coach.

Coaches are most concerned with keeping their jobs or earning job opportunities at more prominent programs.

If your athlete can help a college coach with either, a scholarship may be coming their way!

On the other hand, coaches hate inconsistency. When talented players cannot play consistently, a coach can’t trust that they can win consistently, and inconsistent winning equals a lack of job security.

What is the number 1 reason an athlete is unable to play? You guessed it, injury.

I remember speaking to a college football coach in Texas who told me that he would rather have a good player that is consistently healthy than a great player who is always in physical therapy and injury prone. He went on to say that he likes players who overcame an injury and stayed healthy afterward. To the coach, this indicated a strong work ethic, a resilient mindset, and commitment to the physical therapy and performance training process.

A comprehensive strength training program is best for athletes to stay healthy or overcome a lengthy injury history. Now that summer is here, this is the perfect time for your athlete to get started!

But finding the best strength training solution can be challenging. You should look for three things in your athlete’s strength training program.

Qualified and Experienced Coaches: Look for coaches with a track record of working in your athletes’ sport or discipline. They should demonstrate a strong understanding of exercise science and sport-specific training.
Individualized Program Design: A quality strength training program is tailored to the specific needs and goals of the athlete. Look for programs that start with an individualized assessment to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement. The program should be designed to address your athlete’s unique characteristics.
Goal Alignment: Your athlete’s strength training program should align with their goals and sport. Look for programs that incorporate exercises, training methods, or progressions relevant to your athlete’s sport.

Are you interested in finding the best summer training program for your athlete?

If so, contact us to participate in our rising-star training assessment.

This assessment will show you and your athlete the secret to helping them avoid injury and take their performance to the next level.

Cryotherapy: Is It Really Worth the Hype?

A few months ago, I attended a conference with a group of physical therapists and personal trainers. Over a meal, we found ourselves discussing the day’s events. One of the highlights of the conference was a series of product pitches from various companies targeting healthcare providers like us. Among them was a cryotherapy company, and their representative happened to recognize our group.

He approached our table and confidently delivered his pitch:

“Cryotherapy can help your patients reduce pain, accelerate muscle recovery, decrease inflammation, and improve overall wellness.”

Sound familiar? If you’ve ever heard a similar claim and wondered if cryotherapy really lives up to the buzz, you’re not alone. At our physical therapy clinics in Bethesda and McLean, we receive many inquiries about the effectiveness of cryotherapy.

Let’s break it down.

What Exactly is Cryotherapy?

Cryotherapy involves exposing the body to extremely low temperatures for a brief period, usually just a few minutes. While there are several forms of cryotherapy, the most well-known is whole-body cryotherapy. This process involves standing in a chamber filled with liquid nitrogen vapor, where temperatures can drop as low as -200°F to -300°F (yes, you read that right).

The Ongoing Debate

The benefits of cryotherapy remain a topic of debate within the medical, physical therapy, and fitness communities. While some studies have shown promising results, others have found little to no benefit.

Proponents of cryotherapy suggest that it can help manage various conditions, including chronic pain, arthritis, inflammation, and even depression. The theory is that exposure to extreme cold triggers the release of endorphins—your body’s natural painkillers—while also reducing inflammation in targeted areas. In some cases, studies have indicated that cryotherapy may help alleviate pain and inflammation in people with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. However, much more research is needed to validate these claims.

There are also suggestions that cryotherapy aids in **muscle recovery** after exercise. The idea is that cold temperatures cause blood vessels to constrict, reducing blood flow to the affected muscles. As the body warms up post-session, blood flow returns and promotes healing. While some studies support this, others have shown little to no significant effect.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Cryotherapy is still relatively new, and as with many emerging treatments, the evidence is limited and mixed. Early research shows potential, but more comprehensive studies are necessary to reach firm conclusions.

It’s also important to remember the risks. Exposing the body to such extreme cold comes with hazards, including potential skin damage and frostbite.

If you’re thinking about giving cryotherapy a try, it’s crucial to consult your physician first to ensure it’s a safe option for you.

3 Easy Exercises for Happy Knees

I can’t stand doing warmups. There I said it. Even though I’m a sports physical therapist both in Bethesda and McLean (yup, we opened our new location in McLean, Virginia!), and I know better, I just want to get into my workout without spending 15 minutes doing boring drills.

If you are anything like me, you want to spend the least amount of time warming up without increasing your risk of injury.

One way to reduce the amount of time that you need to warmup your knees are with home exercises that prepare your knees to handle more stress. Our athletic physical therapy patients (both youth athletes and active adults) see us in Bethesda and McLean for help with knee pain that limits them in the gym and/or out on the field. We commonly recommend that people perform drills that build the capacity of what the knees can handle. This means that the knees will be capable of handling more stress and be ready to go as soon as you walk into the gym.

Check out the videos below where I breakdown 3 drills that you can do at home for happy, healthy, and strong knees!

These are just a few examples of drills that help you with knee pain. If you are serious about finally solving the knee pain that is forcing you to modify your favorite workouts, don’t hesitate and contact us today to schedule an appointment in McLean or Bethesda. The root cause of your knee pain is unique and it is unlikely that the cookie cutter program you found online will do the job. We will show you exactly where your knee pain is coming from and provide a customized performance physical therapy plan to address it!

Speed Up Your Recovery From Back Pain

As anyone who has thrown their back out and needed physical therapy will tell you, bending over feels rough for several days after.

Putting on socks and even sitting down is uncomfortable as the body attempts to prevent the lower back from moving, especially into flexion.

Flexion of the spine is commonly the most aggravating movement for anyone experiencing an acute episode of back pain. In physical therapy we test this by asking our patients to touch their toes. Once the acute episode subsides, the next step is training and learning to tolerate slow, controlled movements of the spine.

When tolerated well, the reverse crunch is great drill to teach this quality and can be used effectively as a warmup in the gym.

Oftentimes this is where the injury rehabilitation process stops. At this point the body can tolerate all normal daily activities however it has not learned to manage rapid movements of the spine, such as those that occur in sport or in the gym.

The Med Ball slam is a great drill to train the spine to tolerate movements that involve rapid spinal flexion. This drill should be pain free before attempting any heavy Olympic lifts like a clean or a snatch.

Also, remember to avoid using a ball that bounces as we don’t want any broken noses from this drill!

Physical Therapy Didn’t Work…

I tried physical therapy and it didn’t work.

Many of our patients in Bethesda have seen other physical therapists prior to seeing us. In their previous physical therapy experiences, they did not achieve the results that they were looking for and are coming to us for answers.

Personally, I love working with these people because they continue to believe that our profession can help them. However, negative experiences in physical therapy often cause many others to lose faith in the profession.

Perhaps you are one of these people. If so, I don’t blame you as I once was in your shoes!

When I was in High School, I experienced a quadricep injury that was impacting my ability to play football.

I went to my local physical therapy practice searching for help in overcoming this injury and play in my junior season. It was going to be my first season starting on both offense and defense causing this injury to constantly remain in the front of my mind.

My introduction to physical therapy was not what I had hoped for, and I now realize that my physical therapists were not taking great care of me (to learn more about how you can determine if this is the case, see my latest blog here).

Luckily, I was still able to play in my season and was back to 100% by the middle of the year. However, I can’t help but wonder if I would have been fully healthy to start the season if I saw a different physical therapist.

Like all other professions, the physical therapy industry has great professionals and poor ones. Furthermore, some physical therapists specialize with athletes, some with cardiac patients and others with people living in nursing homes.

As a result, my hope is that instead of saying “I tried physical therapy and it didn’t work”, you say “This physical therapist or physical therapy practice didn’t provide the results that I was looking for and I need to find someone that is a better fit for what I need.”

Do your running shoes pass the test?

You don’t need performance physical therapists like us to tell you that footwear makes a large impact on running performance. The correct running shoe can reduce your race times and lower your injury risk.

When walking into any running store in Bethesda or Chevy Chase, you will find many different shoe brands and several different models of shoes within each brand. Among this wide array of shoes, how do we determine which is best for you?

The answer is different for each person and is dependent on a multitude of different factors. However, any running shoe must meet a few requirements to be considered and these are the first things we look for when assessing any running shoe in physical therapy for runners.

The first is that it must have a firm and snug heel cup. Your heel sits at the base of the shoe, in a place called the heel cup. The heels cup should fit snugly around your heel and should not be much wider than your heel itself. This prevents your heel from sliding around within the shoe, which would negatively impact foot mechanics.

Next, the shoe must have a toe break that folds where your toes bend. Place your shoe on the ground and hold it there. Pull the front of your shoe upwards from underneath. The folding point of the shoe should be located where your toes bend. If your shoe prefers to fold at another location, your foot is being encouraged to bend somewhere else. This alters foot mechanics and can lead to breakdown within the structure of the foot itself.

Finally, you should be able to feel the entirety of both feet on the ground as you are standing still in your shoes. People are often unable to feel their arches, which results in more stress on the areas that are receiving better ground contact.

There are 26 bones and 30 joints within the human foot. This results in a large number of ways that our foot can compensate, and therefore, a large number of factors that we need to be mindful of when choosing the correct running shoe.

The 3 factors outlined above are a good place to start when choosing the right shoe, however there are many other factors that may also need to be considered.

Please contact us for help assessing your foot and determining the best running shoe for you!