Exercise Rehabilitation for Faster Recovery and Injury Prevention

“No citizen has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.  What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without every seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” ~ Socrates

We believe we are serving the best patients in the world. People who live in Colorado are active, athletic, educated and always looking for what they can do for themselves to stay out of pain and prevent re-injury. We are specialists in exercise rehabilitation.

The medical literature is full of studies that demonstrate the benefit of employing active exercise for faster recovery and injury prevention. Whether you suffer from an acute sports injury or chronic pain, a rehabilitation program is customized to meet your individual needs. We draw from the best medical science worldwide to employ the most advanced, most beneficial reactivation strategies for our patients. Our Doctors of Medicine and Chiropractic, in consultation with one another daily, make sure your rehabilitative exercises to meet your individual recovery and performance goals.

What is Rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation is phase two of your care. Phase I included the initial pain control therapies such as dry needling, electrical stimulation, ice, manual or instrument-assisted mobilization and soft tissue therapies, low level laser therapy, pulsating electromagnetic field therapy, and other forms of electrical muscle stimulation.  The use of strapping techniques to stabilize joint function may have been necessary in Phase I to speed your progress. In Phase 2,  the rehabilitation phase, we help you reactivate your muscles and restore the coordination, flexibility, strength, and endurance you had before your problem or injury began.

The key difference in rehabilitation at our Sports Medicine center of excellence is our ability to diagnose and correct the underlying biomechanical and connective tissue problem(s) associated with your condition or injury.  Most rehabilitation programs focus only on strength and flexibility.  But since most injuries (athletic, work or auto) involve biomechanical imbalance and restricted vertebral joint movement, symptoms often persist (perhaps for years!) even if you are stronger or more flexible. Because our goals include assessment and early restoration of spinal joint function through skilled chiropractic expertise your injury may have a better chance to recover more rapidly and completely.  Athletes and others who receive treatment at our center simply perform better and recover faster with less time away and less expense.  And that’s our goal!

Your First Visit

In your first rehab evaluation you’ll discuss your current status with your chiropractor.  Our doctors will review your past treatments.  We’ll review your prior injuries, your life’s activity demands, ergonomics, and anything else to find out what underlying problems may have contributed to your pain in the first place.

You may be asked to perform a variety of movements to test your strength and coordination. We will identify a weak muscle, stiff joint, postural problem, poor control of a certain body movement or any other biomechanical imbalances you may have.

Finally, you’ll learn specific activities and movements you can do on your own to start to rebuild the strength and endurance you need to get back to normal, pain-free life.

Our Unique Approach

Our unique approach to rehabilitation stems from the fact that every person, injury, and life demands are unique. Good, safe movements require a combination of strong bones and joints that are moved by muscles with good strength and endurance, all tied together with good coordination. Getting all these parts working together is like making sure your computer has the correct hardware components and compatible software programs to do what you want to do.

The rehabilitation activities you’ll be taught are carefully designed to ensure that your “hardware,” such as your joints, are as stable and flexible as possible so they’re not painful while you are training your muscles. At the same time, your “software” (proprioception) will be trained with balance and coordination activities to make sure the strengthened muscles do their job of moving you around smoothly and safely.

It is important to use the proper technique and apply the exercises you’ll learn to movements you do on a daily basis. These are called “movement skills.” Perfect practice makes for perfect skills. Quality is much more important than quantity! Being consistent with your home exercise routine is also very important. The more often a skill is practiced, the faster you’ll get good at it. Once you can do activities with good coordination and skill, you’ll progress to exercises that will train endurance, strength, power, and agility. Most of the exercises you’ll do require no special equipment so you’ll be able to do them easily whether at home or on the road.