Athletic Therapy specializes in prevention, emergency care, evaluation and the rehabilitation of orthopaedic injuries. It focuses on a more aggressive and integrated approach to the treatment of injuries sustained during sports, daily physical activities or at the work place. It works on muscular strength and endurance as well as flexibility, balance, coordination, all key factors in one’s well being.
A Certified Athletic Therapist uses a variety of rehabilitative techniques, supportive taping and bracing, therapeutic modalities and rehabilitative and strengthening programs to ensure their athletes and clients have a safe return to work or sport participation.
Certified Athletic Therapists also have extensive education and training in:
• The thorough assessment and appropriate management of concussions, heat-related emergencies, MRSA, and sudden cardiac death
• Equipment fitting, maintenance, and emergency removal
• Supportive taping and bracing application
• Making appropriate and unbiased sideline return to play decisions
• Comprehensive injury management from onset of injury, through injury rehabilitation, to appropriate return to play
One of the key components of an athletic therapy program is prevention, which can include:
• Flexibility and warm-up programs
• Supports (taping and bracing)
• Pre-season evaluation system for sports teams
• Personalized and sport-specific physical conditioning programs
• Courses on the prevention of injuries and basic first aid
• Teaching safe use and proper fitting of sports equipment
As for rehabilitation, athletic therapy offers:
• Exercise therapy
• Manual therapy
• Application of therapeutic modalities (cryo / thermotherapy, massage, ultrasound and electrical stimulation)
• Sport-specific rehabilitation
• Specific reconditioning and education of proper biomechanics for daily physical activity and for return to play/work.
Massage therapy is the manipulation, working and acting on (effleurage, petrissage, tapotement, vibration, friction,) of the body’s superficial and or deep layers of muscle and connective tissue done manually. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, lymphatic tissues, fascia, skin, joints, or other connective tissue.
Massage helps gain and maintain a physical, mental and emotional healthy lifestyle by:
• Enhancing function
• Aiding in healing
• Decreasing muscle reflex activity
• Inhibiting motor-neuron excitability
• Promoting relaxation
• Reducing or eliminating pain
• Improving joint mobility
• Improving circulation
• Improving immune system functioning
• Increasing lymphatic drainage
• Reducing depression and anxiety
• Reducing tension within muscles
• Increasing body awareness
• Promoting long term pain relief
• Promoting injury prevention/rehabilitation
Receipts from the Professional Association of Specialized Massage Therapists of Quebec inc. means that your insurance could cover all or almost all of the cost. So take this opportunity to experience either a generalized relaxing massage with great ambiance or a detailed therapeutic massage with the goal of the multitude of benefits that massage therapy offers.
Osteopathy is a “natural medicine, which aims to restore function in the body by treating the causes of pain and imbalance. To achieve this goal the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner relies on the quality and finesse of his/her palpation and works with the position, mobility and quality of the tissues.” Andrew T. Still (1874)
Osteopathy is a philosophy and an alternative medical practice which emphasizes the interrelationship between structure and function of the body as a whole and recognizes the body’s ability to heal itself if circulation can attain its target areas and waste can be removed.
It is the role of the osteopath to facilitate that process, principally by the practice of manual therapy. The body should be able to heal itself and fight against disease or dysfunction and if it cannot, then any part of the body’s seven different homeostatic osteopathic mechanisms may need to be reset into their proper position, have their mobility restored or their liveliness rejuvenated.
A common question is: will osteopathy help for a certain condition? The answer in the end will always be yes. In improving any limiting factor in someone’s physiology then all others aspects of the body will experience an improvement in dealing with their own regional or systemic issues. Any person seeking treatment of a major or minor complaint, or looking for a preventative route to a more adaptable body, is a viable candidate for osteopathic treatment, although the most common reasons that patients seek treatment include pain management or activity limitation.