Sports Medicine

If you get injured in your sport, we offer the most advanced treatment techniques to help you heal. Our facilities have some of the same equipment found in the training rooms of collegiate and professional sports teams, including:

• AlterG® anti-gravity treadmill. Acts in a way that resists the effects of gravity and enhances the freedom of movement, redefining what’s possible in rehabilitation and training.
• MarkPro electrical stimulation device. An advanced electrical-muscle stimulation device that delivers the most effective muscle recovery available and creates non-fatiguing muscle activation that is scientifically proven to enhance each stage of the muscle recovery process.
• NormaTec pulse recovery system. Includes dynamic air compression through sleeves for your legs or arms to increase blood flow and promote healing and recovery

Regenerative medicine is an exciting new area of medicine offered by Catholic Health. These therapeutic treatments have the potential to help heal damaged muscles, bones and connective tissues at the cellular level by leveraging healthy cells from a patient’s own body. 

Catholic Health physicians also use prolotherapy (proliferative therapy), a non-surgical option for progressive and chronic ligament injuries caused by sport, falls, daily activities, accidents, and certain medical conditions.

Personal blood flow restriction training (PBFR) is a leading-edge treatment where sports therapists use a tourniquet cuff to greatly reduce the blood flow to a muscle and block blood flowing away from that same muscle.

During PBFR sessions, athletes wear the tourniquet cuff and perform low-load exercises, like walking or lifting an arm. The blood flow restriction prompts the athlete's body to respond as it would to high intensity training by increasing the heart rate. 

Effectiveness of PBFR

Catholic Health sports therapists use PBFR with athletes recovering from a muscle injury or surgery to help shorten recovery time. Because PBFR may also reduce the impact of the body’s natural scarring mechanism and decrease muscle loss, it has the potential to benefit athletes who fail to use a muscle or use a muscle significantly less following injury or surgery.

PBFR also increases muscle volume, which can improve an athlete’s endurance and allow them to train longer with less fatigue. This helps them train with more intensity and improve their VO2 Max, which is the body’s ability to efficiently consume and use oxygen.

Recovery and Muscle Restoration

Even athletes who are fit and injury-free can sustain some level of muscular microtrauma when training, specifically as microscopic tears to the muscle. Although they are not injured, they may be sore as a result. Athletes undergoing PBFR have the potential to heal these tiny muscular tears.

Preservation of strength gained during the off-season is possible without placing any more demands on the joints, such as running and throwing. For example, after pitchers start or in a bullpen session, PBFR can be used to preserve the strength and endurance of the rotator cuff and surrounding muscles. This allows the athlete to maintain a healthy shoulder throughout the season.

Catholic Health Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sports Recovery Clinic helps in-season high school athletes treat muscle soreness and fatigue between games and helps off-season athletes looking to stay in shape. Athletes from all sports are welcome.

The free clinic encourages physical recovery between games and is similar to clinics for professional athletes. During sessions, student-athletes work one-on-one with sports therapists. They receive individual evaluations and guidance through active recovery exercise programs.

During the clinic, players also have access to equipment generally available only in elite college programs and professional sports. 

Physical therapists can screen athletes for injury and refer them to a physician, such as an orthopedist, for further evaluation. The clinician also treats athletes who are not injured and need to alleviate normal soreness, stiffness and pain.

Services include:

• Cupping
• Electrical stimulation
• Ice baths (cryotherapy)
• Intermittent compression boots
• Massage

Athletes are also educated as to how to care for their own bodies before and after play.

The Sports Recovery Clinic is available on Sundays between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at:

• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Centereach
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Commack

No appointment is needed for the Sunday clinic.

Appointments are available throughout the week at:

• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Centereach
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Commack
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in East Setauket 
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Melville
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Patchogue
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Port Jefferson 
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Ronkonkoma
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Smithtown
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in West Babylon
• Catholic Health Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in Westbury

The clinic is free for high school athletes. Parents must sign a consent form for students under 18.