March Madness Final Four and Physical Therapy For An Ankle and Knee Sprain

March Madness Final Four and Physical Therapy For An Ankle and Knee Sprain

The madness is on and its the week of the final four! What an exciting tournament it has been. Who would have thought that Wisconsin would be in the final four! I think the clear favorite is Florida. The have won the last 30 games straight.

With basketball and all sports, injuries do happen. Even just walking around or accidentally falling, an injury can happen. Two common injuries in basketball, sports, and just a normal activity are rolling, or spraining an ankle and spraining your knee.

Just a twist or turn of the ankle or knee can result in an injury and it is pretty common. After icing and rest, it is important to get your strength back in these areas so that not only the muscles get stronger again and can support you well but also that the injury is less likely to happen again.

In this way, Physical Therapy is an essential step on the road to recovery with an ankle or knee sprain. Physical Therapy will do several things to make sure you get back to your old self and don’t injure yourself again.

First, there is retraining your balance. At Cross Bay Physical Therapy, we work on balance for these injuries so that you can again manuever with ease. Through Physical Therapy, balance retraining will increase your flexibility, regain the lost range of motion, strengthen weak muscles, and improve posture. All this makes a body fit and healthy.

It is important to directly strengthen these recovering body parts as well. Strengthening the muscles prevents further injuries and regains you your previous abilities. You may come back even stronger.

Physical therapists begin by giving a thorough evaluation of an individual’s physical capability. This will help the physical therapists at Cross Bay Physical Therapy design an individualized treatment plan for you. At the same time as balance retraining and strengthening exercises, physical therapists apply either a hot or cold pac and TENS, or Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.

With TENS, electrodes are placed on the skin around the injured areas and electrical impulses stimulate deep tissue to reduce pain and accelerate recovery.

If you have an ankle, knee, or shoulder sprain, it will definitely benefit you to participate in physical therapy. Call for an appointment today with our Cross Bay Physical Therapists at (718) 835-0084.

By Benjamin Bieber