When your mobility is limited, your functionality is hindered, and your quality of life is changing because of your pain and limitations, physical therapy can often help you return to normal living.
At DPT Sport Physical Therapy in the Burr Ridge/Hinsdale area, our licensed and skilled physical therapists utilize their specialized knowledge of anatomy and biomechanics and pair it with a comprehensive evaluation of how your individual body works; they then use this information specific to you to then devise effective treatment plans to reduce your pain, restore your mobility, and help you achieve your goals. Our therapists are well versed in treating both acute and chronic injuries/conditions.
Physical therapy is also useful following surgeries such as total joint replacements and ligamentous repairs to help you return to an active, physical lifestyle.
Our first goal following examination and assessment is to reduce your pain and swelling. Our therapy often involve a mixture of hands-on manual therapy and therapeutic exercises, depending on the patient. Upon discharge, not only will you be feeling better, we make sure you understand the ins and outs of your customized home exercise program so that you can soar to new levels.
Our skilled physical therapists may include orthopedic manual therapy as part of your physical therapy program. This involves either one-on-one manual therapy techniques focused on your joints and/or muscles, as well as other tissues and nerves. All of our therapists are specially trained and use IASTM (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization, i.e., Hawk Grips, Graston) as an adjunct manual technique to help treat soft tissue dysfunction and lay the foundation to improve inefficient and problematic movement patterns. In addition, our director teaches and trains other doctoral clinicians around the state in the use of IASTM.
These gentle techniques can be aimed at such goals as reducing muscle tightness, improving range of motion, and restoring function. We tailor our choice of manual techniques to your body and include you in goal setting.
Pre- and Post-Surgical Rehabilitation
Research supports a program of physical therapy both before (“pre-hab”) and after surgeries such as total joint replacements and ligamentous repairs (i.e., rotator cuff repairs, ACL reconstructions). Knowing what will happen and understanding immediate post-surgical care as well as goals of rehab are paramount in starting a successful post-surgical rehabilitation. In addition, taking part in pre-surgical physical therapy can bring your swelling down and improve your joint range of motion and muscle strength so that you begin your post-surgical rehab on a higher level; this typically leads to a shorter length of post-surgical rehabilitation.
After surgery, the goal is to hasten healing time and help you restore complete mobility. Working closely with any recommendations that your physician may have, we will implement an evidence-based treatment program to reduce swelling and pain and begin to restore function.
In addition to your treatment sessions here in our clinic, our therapists will set you up with a home exercise program to speed up your recovery and get you back to what you love doing as quickly as possible.
Combining our extensive knowledge of sport biomechanics with how the body works, our licensed physical therapists will tailor a treatment plan aimed at helping you regain your strength, mobility, coordination, and power.
We combine manual therapy techniques and therapeutic strength and conditioning exercises to get you back out on the court/field as quickly as possible and once back, prevent reoccurrence of your injury.
Together we can team up to help you recover from your current injury and even advance you to a higher level of athletic performance.
Fall Prevention and Balance Training
The fear of falling is a significant yet often unspoken worry of individuals as they age. Because our bones can become more brittle as we age and they are slower to heal, a bad fall can dramatically change our ability to live an active lifestyle.
Whether you fall on a regular basis or have never had an incident but are concerned about falling, our skilled physical therapists will use comprehensive assessments that are supported by research to determine your level of fall risk. We will then devise a customized balance training program focused on helping you strengthen your muscles, improve your balance, enhance your flexibility and increase your joint range of motion. All of these target areas combined will help decrease your fall risk as well as the lower the likelihood of injury should a loss of balance occur.
Your physical therapy treatment plan at our Burr Ridge clinic will include comprehensive education and discussion with your therapist of possible home modifications and new, safer ways to move and get around aimed at lessening your risk of falling. We will also evaluate your need for assistive devices and any other special equipment around your house.
Work Conditioning and Hardening
Back injuries alone account for almost one third of total compensable injuries in the United States, according to Worker’s Compensation. Musculoskeletal injuries are the primary cause.
Physical therapy is often the critical piece in the medical care continuum in helping injured workers recover and return to their workplaces in an efficient and safe manner.
At DPT Sport, we offer customized work conditioning and work hardening programs intended to help workers recover as quickly as possible from injuries.
Our work conditioning program focuses on whole body strengthening and cardiovascular conditioning tasks to restore function. Another important key that we incorporate into our program is education consisting of instruction on proper body mechanics and equipment/material handling. Reinforcing and monitoring these body mechanic techniques during our work conditioning program, our rehab specialists will reinforce and monitor proper body mechanic techniques so that bad work habits are eliminated; this ultimately reduces the risk of re-injury.
Work conditioning refers to a more intense program, where the patient is typically in the clinic for a minimum of a 4-hr day, 5 days a week. The emphasis is on placing the injured worker in simulated or actual work tasks to help improve their strength, endurance, and functional power generation specific to their occupational requirements. This then prepares the individual for the rigorous demands in the workplace once they have returned full duty.
