Not everyone may be familiar with physical therapy and how it may benefit young athletes. We hope this article gives a quick introduction into what physical therapy is and what makes GO PT special. We’re confident that with our services we can accelerate recovery, reduce the risk for injury, and improve performance, building healthy habits for a lifetime!
What is Physical Therapy?
The primary goal of physical therapy is to help you move and feel to the best of your ability. We evaluate and treat several bodily systems to achieve this, including the musculoskeletal, neurological, and cardiovascular systems.
It is through exercise that physical therapy directly affects these bodily systems. Physical Therapists deeply understand the science behind how the body responds to physical stress (i.e. “exercise”). PTs view exercise how a pharmacist might view medication. Similarly, PTs prescribe exercise with specific “dosage” tailored to the individual using intensity, volume, and frequency to optimally elicit desired physical adaptations.
There are many unique factors to consider with each athlete to optimize outcomes. It’s important that a Physical Therapist understands what your experience with movement is, what your movements are like from day to day, rest, diet and so much more to create an optimal treatment plan that fits your active lifestyle and goals.
Physical Therapy may also incorporates hands-on or “manual” techniques, to cause a multitude of reactions from the body. Often the aim of these manual techniques is to improve the rate of healing, increase mobility, or facilitate muscle activation or relaxation. Examples of manual therapy include massage, joint mobilization, hands-on stretches.
How can physical therapy help my child with their current athletic ambitions?
Of course, if your child is healing from a current injury, our providers are well trained to help speed up recovery and get them performing even better than before their injury.
However, we believe it is our responsibility as physical therapists to work with patients long before an injury even occurs. Often kids (and adults!) are unaware of poor movement patterns, muscle weaknesses, or mobility deficits that significantly increase their risk for injury. These vulnerabilities can be teased out and patched up early on, greatly reducing the chances your child sustains an injury that pre-maturely ends their season, or worse, lingers on throughout their life.
By developing your child’s strength, mobility, and coordination we not only reduce their risk for injury, but also improve their performance, putting them in the best position to achieve their athletic ambitions.
Building Healthy Habits Now for a Lifetime
One of the most exciting and gratifying aspects about working with young patients, is that we can educate them early on healthy active lifestyle habits that will last them a lifetime.
We see the opportunity to not only help someone reduce their risk for a sports injury in their youth, but also give them the tools that can reduce their risk for diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart disease, depression, and more later in life.
Why GO PT?
GO PT is a family-owned clinic and we proudly prioritize our patients over profits.
Our 60-minute treatment sessions give you and your child a clear advantage over most other clinics that only offer 40 or 30-minute sessions. While other clinics pass-off their patients to PT aides or assistants, we promise your child will receive one-on-one treatment from a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Our providers are athletes themselves, and we meet multiple times a month to discuss the most recent PT literature, making us confident in our knowledge and skills to provide the best PT care in Seattle.
Our services are covered by most major insurance companies. Most patients find that once their deductible is met, our sessions only cost our patients $30/session or nothing at all! We are happy to check your insurance for you so that you fully understand your benefits before you start your care with us.
We love working with athletes so much, that we offer 2 free 60-minute PT sessions to select applicants through our Sports Sponsorship program. Click below to apply to our program.
You can also click on our “book now” button to schedule your appointment with us today!