Orthopedic Physical Therapy

Saunders Running Program

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Running Injuries and Physical Therapy

Is pain limiting your daily or weekend runs around the lake? Are you a marathon runner who has suffered from several injuries? We have a team of running specialists who can get you on the road to recovery after an injury, assist in injury prevention, and enhance overall performance. As a weekend runner or marathon runner, you can expect a thorough evaluation of your musculoskeletal injury, shoe selection, biomechanical assessment, and foot posture.

  • Musculoskeletal Evaluation: An evaluation of your posture, muscle imbalances including tightness or overactivity, biomechanical assessment, and a foot analysis to determine structure and mechanical faults. All of these components  an assessment of possible etiological factors to your acute or chronic injury.

  • Footwear Analysis: We analyze your specific running shoe and provide recommendations, educate you regarding shoe “health” and types, and orthotic recommendations

  • Running Gait Video Analysis: We will use video assessment while you run on a treadmill to evaluate your biomechanics and identify muscular imbalances. This way you too can visualize movement faults and understand the basis of your treatment.

  • Treatment: Whether you suffer from plantar fascitis, shin splints, or hip/back pain with running, we incorporate the above assessment with specific treatment techniques to help return you to pain free running. 

Treating the injured runner requires a multi-modal approach, and may include manual therapy, or joint and soft tissue mobilization. This helps improve flexibility, promote healing, and increase efficiency with movement patterns. You can also expect to engage in sport-specific core stabilization training to decrease the mechanical load on the lower extremities and improve balance and proprioception. A home exercise program will be assigned to improve muscular flexibility, strengthen, address balance, and facilitate good muscle memory for return to running.

Running evaluation services are offered in our Maple Grove and Saint Paul clinics.

Orthopedic Treatment Philosophy

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  • Musculoskeletal Evaluation: We will evaluate muscle strength, imbalances, flexibility, posture, and specific functional tests to analyze biomechanics and movement patterns. From there we work to establish an individualized plan of care to address the findings.
  • Manual therapy: Joint and soft tissue mobilization helps to improve the flexibility and stability, promote healing, decrease muscle spasm.
  • Exercise: Very targeted exercises to restore strength, stability, mobility and balance are prescribed. We won’t waste your time with lengthy exercise “protocols”. Instead, we hone in on the most important activities specific to your condition.
  • Modalities: We use modalities like ultrasound, e-stim, heat and cold sparingly – our philosophy is more likely to be geared toward hands-on manual care and exercise.
  • Education: One of the most important features of our care is education to prevent reinjury. Often, simple changes in posture or lifestyle can make a big difference.
 Jenn Joslyn DPT shoulder exam

 

Treatment of Sports Injuries

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Saunders offers treatment of sports injuries as a subset of its orthopedic physical therapy services. Our physical therapists develop individualized rehabilitation plans focused on performance optimization and prevention of reinjury.

  • Musculoskeletal Evaluation: We will evaluate muscle strength, imbalances, flexibility, posture, and specific functional tests to analyze biomechanics and movement patterns. From there we work to establish an individualized plan of care to address the findings.
  • Manual therapy: Joint and soft tissue mobilization helps to improve the flexibility and stability, promote healing, decrease muscle spasm, and improve efficiency with performance.
  • Neuromuscular Re-education Training: This includes performing hands on resistive training or balance/proprioception activities in the gym to improve your body’s awareness and muscular control.
  • Sport specific Training: We educate the individual in appropriate interval training programs for throwing and running, and to assist with a safe return to activity.
  • Education: Especially with young athletes, it is very important to educate both the individual and family on injury prevention, activity modification, and acute medical management of injuries, so these growing individuals can prevent future injuries.
 Sports physical therapy treatment at Saunders Therapy Centers

 

Physical Therapy for Orthopedic Conditions

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ball exercise

Common problems we treat:

  • Shoulder tendinitis and rotator cuff injuries
  • Frozen shoulder
  • Tennis elbow, elbow, wrist and hand sprains and strains
  • Neck pain and whiplash
  • Low back pain
  • Brachial plexus injury and thoracic outlet syndrome
  • Hip bursitis, arthritis and tendinitis
  • Piriformis syndrome
  • Knee sprains and lower extremity muscle strains
  • Torn knee ligaments
  • Ankle and foot sprains and strains
  • Plantar fasciitis
  • Pre and post-surgical rehabilitation for all of the above

 

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