Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc.

FAQ about The Physical Performance Center, Gastonia and Statesville, NC

We receive a lot of questions about The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates in both Gastonia and Statesville, NC. We designed a brief handout in order to educate coaches, parents, and athletes about how we can help them achieve their athletic goals.

The Physical Performance Center is a medically based, athletic development training facility, which is dedicated to making the athletes we work with better, whether it is stronger, faster, or more agile.

 

Benefits:

• Athletes become more competitive in their respective sports
• Reduce injury and improve conditioning
• Allow athletes to compete at a higher level for longer periods of time

 

We designed this brief handout in order to educate coaches, parents and athletes about what we do.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

We already have access to a weight room at school or to another gym. Why should we work with you?

 

This is a question we often hear. If you were able to achieve the results you were looking for already and on your own, you would have stopped reading by now. Access does not equal “know how.” Just because someone has read a book or has seen someone else lifting or working out, does not mean they know how to put it all together to achieve the results they desire. We are professionals with expert knowledge in how the body works and the ways to increase athletic performance. We can design single workouts sessions, correct technique/provide feedback on form and mechanics, and/or provide individual and group training sessions.

 

Are you trying to take the place of the coach or the strength coach at the school?

 

No! We work with the coaches and strength coaches and are available as a resource for advanced training techniques, training program design, and injury prevention. Our job is to assist coaches who feel they have a strong program already but who may have questions or have athletes that need special one-on-one attention that is often difficult to provide in a group setting during practice.  We are also a resource for those coaches who know they need to do some sort of weight training/conditioning, but are unsure where to start or whom may feel they could use more advanced training ideas.  We can work together to provide that as well.

 

Coaches, what would your practices be like if your athletes were already conditioned and prepared to compete each time you started a practice?

 

Coaches are able to spend more time on designing and running plays and practicing sport specific skills instead of working on basic conditioning with their athletes. Athletes, just think how much more could you learn in practice if you were prepared ahead of time?

 

Strength coaches at schools often run into the same problems in that they may also teach and may not have enough time in the day to monitor every athlete that comes into the weight room. They may need an extra set of eyes and assistance in athlete development. We can help!

 

When is the best time to start? Should I start just before the season or a few months in advance?

 

Waiting until the season starts to begin training is a common mistake and often a bad idea. Coaches will generally start hearing injury complaints from athletes 3 to 5 weeks into the season when they have not performed a conditioning program prior to the start of the season. The overuse injuries commonly seen, in general can be avoided by ramping up a training program over time rather than all at once.

 

The off-season (those months just after the competition season up to 2-3 months prior to the start of the next season) does not mean the athlete takes off completely. In fact, the opposite should be true. This is the perfect time for “active rest” and to build overall muscle strength, build an aerobic conditioning base, and work on balance and reaction speed. Typically volume is high and resistance is low during this training phase.

 

The pre-season (the period of time 2-3 months before the start of the season) is when athletes usually want to start increasing the intensity of their work outs to reflect the upcoming demands of their sport for in-season competition. Increasing intensity can take place in the form of interval or speed training, the use of higher resistance during work outs, and advanced skill training. This is the best time to build overall power and strength which will be carried into the season.

 

The in-season, during which athletes are competing in their respective sport, is the time to back off of the training load from previous work out sessions, however not the time to reduce intensity. This period of training is marked by low volume (decreased time and/or sets) and high intensity (effort is the same high level).

 

I saw another team we compete against working out in your facility already. Will other teams learn our secrets?

We are a training facility that focuses on Athlete development. We can work with any and all athletes because we are working on areas of the athlete’s body which have been identified in our assessment as needing strength, improved flexibility, and/or speed, power, agility, or additional instruction in technique. We don’t have the time, nor do we have the desire to get into coaches playbooks. We are a part of the overall team and pride ourselves in making athletes better. We get excited when athletes who have worked with us do well, but know we only play a part in their overall success. 

 

Can we afford your services?

 

All athletes start off with a FREE consultation and athletic assessment. This allows the athlete, parents, and/or coaches to get a feel for what we do and what we are going to work on.

 

Information for Older Adults in Gastonia, NC

Older adults are using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) more and more as they continue to look for ways to combat common ailments typically found in advanced age.

The NIH SeniorHealth website has useful information so that older adults can make informed decisions prior to deciding which forms of CAM they should try.

Universal Health Coverage? No Way!

Universal Health coverage is socialism at its best. We should be scared, very scared of this! The new administration in the White House would like to implement this at the tax payers expense. Or do they? Obama keeps saying he would like universal health coverage, but does he really mean it?

At face value it sounds great. Universal health care coverage would make sure that every individual has access to health care. The problem is that this is not entirely true, at least not from his plan. If it is not truly universal health care coverage, then quit calling it by the misnomer.

The new administration proposes the following (from ABC news)

Obama is asking for $634 billion in his new budget to be put aside over the next 10 years as a sort of health care fund. He says some of the money will come from taxing the wealthy and through trimming the fat in current government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

The budget calls for also taking, over 10 years, $175 billion in fees that the government now pays insurance companies to cover more than 10 million people in private Medicare. The administration has said that that such private plans cost 14 percent more than traditional Medicare.

Access to health care is a privilege and not a right. No where is it written that All Men are Created Equal and all should have equal access to health care. We have inequality in regards to access to many things: schools, private organizations and businesses, means of travel, and so on. Some are based on how much we are willing to pay, others on access based on geographical location, and almost all are based on decisions we make (how much money we want to save/spend, where we want to live/how far we want to travel, and so on.)

Some may question how any of this is relevant? Life is made up of choices. Some choices we make lead us to great riches, other choices keep us at best in the same position and at worst in a worse situation.

Example: Take two people: Person One, is a 43 year old female that gets diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a runner, watches her diet, and does not smoke. She is otherwise healthy and can't understand why she is having to deal with breast cancer when she took such great care of herself.

Now compare to Person Two, who is 45 year old male that has insulin dependent diabetes, is 40 lbs overweight, has hypertension, and smokes. The person who chooses to not watch their diet, smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, and not get any exercise should not have the same right to health care without having to pay more for it. Plain and simple.

Whose fault is it that person two did not take better care of themselves? Could the money being used (thousands of dollars a year) to pay for their insurance by the government go to another worthwhile cause (building schools, roads, and so on)? I would imagine so. I would not have a problem raising money for the health care costs of person one and many times communities rally around such individuals. Person two may be a different story; Not so news worthy after all.

Universal health care coverage puts everyone in the same boat and provides everyone the same access to care. Health care visits are based on when you put your name on the list and not when you necessarily need the care. Imagine the waiting room at your next appointment if everyone could go to the same place. We would be happy with an hour wait in the waiting room. Given the choice would you rather go to a posh private office with designer furniture and beverage service or a public health department for your health care?

Public Housing is a perfect example of this. Access to housing has never made anyone really want to live there. Give some one a house and watch how they take care of it. In some cases the availability of housing has helped some make ends meet and provide a better way of life. However those things for which we have worked for are often take better care of. Make some one pay for their house and things often change. What is the incentive to take care of myself if someone always pays for my care when I need it. There is none.

So even if the new fund only provides access to health care to those out of work, what good does that do us? I know a lot of people who would rather not work, collect government pay and wait until something they enjoy doing comes a long. Again the choice is often up to the individual.

Fix the system, not the funding sources. Reduce utilization of costly and inefficient care and spending will decrease. Other countries that do not have the same accessibility to MRI, CT Scan's, low back surgery and so on, have far lower costs, and better overall health care.  Add tort reform and reduce the liability on physicians and other health care providers by wasteful lawsuits and trial attorneys looking to get rich off "victims" of negligence in a non-exact science, also known as health care. Is a person really due millions of dollars just because the health care provider has good malpractice insurance? In most cases the majority of these "victims" could have worked an entire lifetime and still never made a million dollars. Our malpractice insurance has increased 300% over the last 5 years and we have never had a claim against us. At the current rate of increase we double our malpractice insurance costs every two years. How long can we keep that up?

Our company paid $10,000 in state and federal taxes in just November 2008 alone. We paid more than that in December and had to let two providers go because we could not afford salary and taxes. The taxes alone could have funded an additional provider, instead we had to let two go. Let's increase taxes some more and see what else happens.

The "new" health care plan is more of the same "old," wasteful spending at its finest.

Low Back Pain Help at Gaston Rehab Associates Gastonia, NC

A review article published this month in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons should help convince many patients with low back pain to consider physical therapy as a first line of treatment for their condition. The review recommends that in most cases of symptomatic lumbar degenerative disc disease, a common cause of low back pain (LBP), the most effective treatment is physical therapy combined with anti-inflammatory medications. Approximately 75%-85% of adults will be affected by low back pain during their lifetimes.

The review details the different treatment methods for symptomatic lumbar degenerative disc disease, including physical therapy with the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and concludes that, in most patients with low back pain, symptoms resolve without surgical intervention. The review also concludes that physical therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the "cornerstones" of nonsurgical treatment.

"Receiving care from a licensed physical therapist can further improve the odds that patients can maintain their quality of life and avoid surgery," says Julie Fritz, PT, PhD, ATC, clinical outcomes research scientist at Salt Lake City's Intermountain Healthcare and associate professor at the University of Utah. "Spinal manipulation can be an important component of physical therapist treatment for low back pain. Supplementing exercise with spinal manipulation is also beneficial for many patients."

This is great news to see more evidence in a well respected journal to add to what we have been saying all along. Physical Therapy should be a first line option for low back pain. It is cost-effective and in most cases when a person is seen within the first couple of days after an episode of back pain the success rate of reducing symptoms is much higher.

In the State of North Carolina, physical therapists are licensed and trained to perform spinal manipulation and most perform spinal manipulation in a safe, mid-range position, unlike some other healthcare professionals that prefer to perform spinal manipulation in an unsafe endrange of motion in the spine. You will need a physician to write a prescription for spinal manipulation in order for us to perform this treatment.

You can reach one of the Doctors of Physical Therapy at Gaston Rehab Associates by telephone at (704) 864-4424.