Barak was defending a player in a basketball game when he placed all his body weight on his left leg and then heard a “pop” in his hip. Immediately after the injury, Barak experienced extreme pain in his groin and hip, and was unable to continue playing basketball. Based on the seriousness of his injury, Barak decided to come in to Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy in New York City to determine what was going on with his hip and how best to treat it.
Barak’s therapist Jon performed a full-scale evaluation and found that he experienced pain in his injured hip upon bringing his knee to his chest and rotating it in towards his body. From there, he recommended that Barak see a hip specialist physician in order to get a more accurate assessment of his injury. The physician ordered an MRI of his hip, which indicated that Barak had a partial tear of his rectus femoris, the tendon of one of the large quadriceps muscles that connects at the hip. To address his hip pain, the physician advised Barak to have a plasma-rich platelet injection, which is a solution made up of the platelets from Barak’s blood used to stimulate healing of his injury.
Barak then returned to Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy in New York City one week after the injection. The doctor recommended avoiding manual therapy to the hip for the first two weeks of therapy, and to instead focus on improving his strength and core stability. The evaluation performed at this time revealed that Barak had decreased hip strength, decreased core stability when extending his left hip, and pain when moving his hip in two directions. He also had poor balance on his left side when performing single leg exercises.
Upon starting treatment, Barak indicated that his goals were to return to basketball and an independent gym program. His program began with foam rolling and Active Release Technique that targeted various hip muscles affected by the injury. This was followed by therapeutic exercises designed to improve Barak’s hip strength, core stability and balance, all of which were impaired. Over the next three weeks, Barak progressed into more functional strength exercises, which included squats, step-ups, lunges and deadlifting. Barak was able to tolerate these types of exercises without increased pain, so Jon then decided to add some agility exercises to the program over the next three weeks, which included side shuffles, carioca, ice skater jumps and finally straight line running.
As Barak made his way through the treatment program, he eventually started playing basketball on his own and gradually transitioned back to his recreational pick-up game. Since completing treatment, Barak has returned to full participation in his independent gym program and plays pick-up basketball on the weekends without any complaints of hip pain. He also continues to work on his flexibility with foam rolling and stretching, and he also follows a modified strength/balance/core stability program before games.
Barak had this to say about the results of his treatment: “As an avid basketball player, after blowing out my tendon, I was very concerned that I wasn’t going to heal properly and that I wouldn’t be able to get back on the court. Jon and the Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy team did wonders in helping me rehab and recover quickly so that I was back out doing what I love to do. Now if they could only fix my jumper…”
Experience the same kind of success at Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy in New York City
Barak’s story shows exactly what is possible with a focused treatment program and a commitment to recover completely, and we wish him the best in all his future endeavors. At Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy in New York City, we invite you to be our next success story if you’re currently dealing with any type of injury that’s holding you back. Contact us at 212-317-8303 to schedule an appointment today or click here to read our last blog on rectus femoris tendon tears.
