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Do You Know What Return To Sport Testing Is?

DO YOU KNOW WHAT RETURN TO SPORT TESTING IS

Did you know there is a battery of tests PT’s put athletes through to test whether or not an athlete who is recovering from a lower extremity injury is ready to return to their sport?  It’s called a Return to Sport test (very fancy name, I know). These are evidence/research based tests that give widely accepted results on how physically ready a person is to go back to their sport.

Usually, we do this type of testing when a patient is painfree, has progressed through more advanced strength exercises, and has been given the OK by MD, if recovering from a surgery, to perform more impact type activities.  These tests compare the involved leg to the uninjured leg in regards to things like jumping and landing, speed of movement, change of direction movements, and quality of a sports specific movement (meaning just because you can do a certain movement but your form is bad doesn’t mean your ready to hit the field/court/ice).

I often like to video a patient as they are doing certain movements and show them what they look like especially if the form is poor.  The visual can be really helpful for a person to see what the problem is and work on retraining their body to move properly.  If you are an active person  or athlete and are having pain in the hip, knee, ankle, don’t hesitate to come into PT and during the course of your treatments, we can incorporate this kind of testing to see how ready you are to return back to your activity.  Give me a call if you have any questions!

– Amy