posts FROM PROFESSIONALS - 2019
Featured Healthcare Professional: JoeRehab
Joseph Cheung is a Registered Massage Therapist and Certified Functional Strength Coach. His clientele includes a wide range of athletes including powerlifters, martial artists, and weekend warriors. Joseph has treated both acute injuries and chronic pain conditions, and enjoys helping individuals regain full function and eliminate pain. Prior to becoming a massage therapist, Joseph spent 6 years as a corporate accountant at a Big 5 Bank. However at the age of 30, after his father passed away from cancer, he realized that life was too short and decided to pursue his passion. He went back to school to study Massage Therapy, read countless books on anatomy, and travelled around the world to learn from world renowned mentors. He is now one of the highest sought after massage therapists in Markham, Ontario, with a social media following of nearly 150K.
Check out his website and book an appointment with him @ http://joerehab.com/
Q&A with JoeRehab
1. Having worked with numerous athletes, what advice would you give to athletes feeling discouraged after a sports injury?
The body is highly resilient and can come back from almost anything. Believing in the process and your therapist and putting in work will get you back to full recovery and even stronger. The road to recovery is never a straight line, some days are up, some days are down but the pattern over time is up. Rehab is hard, get into the right mindset, have patience and connect with the right people to talk to when feeling discouraged.
2. Why is massage therapy important after knee injuries?
Massage therapy can be of value by decreasing the pain of knee injuries. During the acute stage of injury, lymphatic drainage techniques can help decrease swelling. Later stages can help with pain reduction and restore range of motion in the knee joint. Therapeutic exercises given by the massage therapist can also rebuild ROM and strength and return to sport movements. Areas I usually focus on are muscles that surround the knee all the way up to the hip, and possibly the opposite leg due to compensation as well.
3. What are the benefits of foam rolling after a sports injury, and what are some exercises that you would recommend?
The benefits of foam rolling is to help decrease tone and possibly decrease pain. After an injury, the muscles will guard and protect the injured area. Depending on the nature of the injury and stage of the injury, foam rolling may be beneficial. For example, during the acute stage of an injury, muscle guarding may be necessary to help protect the area. At this stage, foam rolling might not be necessary or some light foam rolling maybe beneficial. In later stages, once inflammation has subsided and increased tone still surround the muscles of the knees, foam rolling can be more beneficial at this time.
Depending on the stage of the injury, different exercises will be beneficial, but the common rules are to first work on regaining pain-free range of motion, then isometrics, then concentric and eccentric strength exercises.
4. After a sports injury, how often do athletes typically come for massage therapy treatments?
This is dependent on the sports injury. Minor injuries require 3-5 sessions weekly, while major injuries can last from 5-10+ sessions. We usually look at the nature of the injury, client current condition and determine the treatment plan. Treatment will include passive therapy such as massage, and active therapy such as exercises.
5. What would you recommend for an athlete that has anterior knee pain?
The best advice I can give to an athlete that has anterior knee pain is to seek out a professional and get assessed. There can be many causes of knee pain and you want to be able to identify the root cause before getting treated and continuing to do exercises or your sport activity. With the proper professional, they will guide you through the process of full recovery by modifying exercises through volume, intensity and load. This is better than finding advice on the internet and trying it out which could either potentially help, make things worst, or even delay the recovery process.