ACL injuries are among the most common serious knee injuries in alpine skiing because the sport combines speed, uneven terrain, and sudden directional changes that place rotational stress on the knee. When a skier falls with the ski fixed in the snow as the body continues to rotate, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) can tear....
By: Lucas Glomb, PT, DPT, OCS If you’ve torn your ACL, one of the biggest factors in how well you recover actually happens before surgery. Pre-operative physical therapy, commonly called “prehab”, sets the stage for everything that follows. Patients who prepare their knee before surgery consistently demonstrate better strength, improved function, and smoother recoveries afterward. Restore...
By: Rani Helvey-Byers, PT, DPT, OCS Brazilian Jiu Jitsu demonstrates an extremely high injury prevalence, with 91% of practitioners sustaining at least one injury during training and 60% of competitive athletes injured in competition.1 For many practitioners, injuries are simply part of the journey, a minor blip requiring mild alteration to the training schedule. However,...
By: Lucas Glomb, PT, DPT, OCS If you’ve had ACL reconstruction or are preparing for surgery, graft choice plays a major role in how your knee heals and how physical therapy progresses. At Mend Physical Therapy, we work with ACL patients across Colorado to tailor rehab based on the specific graft used and the demands...
By: Lucas Glomb, PT, DPT, OCS High-quality ACL rehabilitation should be criterion-based, not time-based. Most people recovering from ACL surgery are told they’ll return to sport in 6–9 months. While healing timelines matter, time alone does not determine readiness. Two people at the same point on the calendar can have completely different strength, movement quality,...
By: Lucas Glomb, PT, DPT, OCS Many people think that once they’re cleared to return to sport after ACL reconstruction, the work is done. But for many athletes, the real challenges show up months, or even years, later. Depending on the type of graft used for reconstruction, patients may develop chronic issues that limit performance...
ACL injuries are one of the most common sports injuries seen in our Boulder Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy clinics. Previous research on this injury has questioned the utilization of surgery for every patient with an ACL tear due to many returning to full function with Physical Therapy alone. Authors and researchers have questioned...
Concussions are a common injury with an estimated incidence of 600 cases each year for each 100,000 people. Previous researchers have found movement impairments in athletes following concussion which may contribute to the increased injury risk seen in concussed athletes vs. their healthy peers. Researchers have found athletes who sustain a concussion are at a...
ACL injuries are one of the most common sports injuries with estimates ranging from 100-200K tears per year. Female athletes are at significantly greater risk for ACL tears and have a 6-8 x greater risk of injury compared to their male peers in the same sport. After an ACL injury, each athlete should meet with...
Basketball has one of the highest injury rates in sports with articles reporting up to 7-10 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures (Dick et al. J Athl Train. 2007). As expected, the majority of these injuries occur in the lower extremity, in particular within the knee and ankle. Authors report both overuse (tendinopathy) and traumatic (sprain,...
