athlete care

Dr. E. Capitano, attended the ALTIS Performance Therapy Program December 2016 at EXOS in Phoenix Arizona. Dr. Capitano also attended the Functional Integrated Therapy Institute, which is an organization of highly skilled healthcare professionals dedicated to the development and promotion of advanced integrated therapies for injury rehabilitation and performance improvement.

Performance therapy can be described as an innovative and highly successful therapy model that brings together a full range of treatments to manage injuries and optimize athletic performance.  It has been used to treat elite athletes at the professional, Olympic and world championship level, as well as active individuals and ‘weekend warriors’. 

Dr. Capitano will often integrate mobility and stability intervention (the therapeutic treatment) into the training environment, thereby positively effecting motor control, and thus lending to the athlete the best chance to make a positive change thus increasing performance.  

SquareONE Rehabilitation has a dedicated space for applying these correctives immediately after a treatment session thereby giving the athlete the best chance to incorporate and reproduce those in there own training environment. 

Performance Therapy will ensure the optimal training environment and recovery of the athlete.

How important is Movement

Movement is one of the primary foundations for enhancing athlete’s ability to attain greater strength and power and to keep athletes safe from injury. I’m not saying that efficiency is sought at the expense of optimal athlete conditioning or fitness. However, movement efficiency is the structure upon which strength and cardiovascular fitness are built. I have spent countless hours learning and exchanging expertise on how to create the best environment for the athletes for the sole purpose of helping them attain their best abilities. 

The sport world is littered with individuals who have impressive physical attributes, such as huge anaerobic capacity or formidable strength. Some have become world champions. Others have never made the leap to stardom because, despite these qualities, the poor posture and movement strategies they adopt compromise their ability to apply force efficiently and repeatedly. Essentially, they leak energy, making the metabolic cost of performing at high intensities or over long durations expensive and performance limiting. Athletes just don’t need to be strong, they also need to be efficient. This concept not just applies to all athletes but to the general public as well. 

Inefficient movement is metabolically costly, which means that the onset of fatigue will be quicker, and subsequent performance decay will be larger.

Off course there are other significant variables such as technical, tactical, mental, and equipment to name a few. But the aim here is to highlight the impact of human movement efficiency on performance. 

My goal is to balance movement control and movement freedom. Creating stiffness around joints is necessary but too much could result in rigidity around joints and therefore effect performance. Movement efficiency is about being able to explore movement throughout the range of motion in a stable and strong manner. I have attained many different clinical and training paradigms to accomplish this. One excellent method is using Functional range conditioning (FRC) as a means to accomplishing this. My treatment protocol incorporates drills that encourage athletes to explore somewhat unfamiliar motions so athletes are allowed to cope with larger scope of movement demands within training or competition. Having a broader window of acceptable movement and dissociate components of movements can be achieved by novel drills into a warm-up.

Dr. Capitano subscribes to a movement-based approach popularized by the works of Dr. Vladmir Janda, Dr. Craig Liebenson, Dr. Stuart McGill, Dr. Charlie Weingroff and Gray Cook. He uses principles of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) and sound rehabilitation and training science. Some of the paradigms Dr. Capitano is formally trained and/or certified in include DNS, ART, Graston, Acupuncture, Functional Integrated Needling, TPI, FRC, FRR, FMS/SFMA, RPR, SFG and HKC. Any red flags assessed, appropriate drills will be incorporated to rectify the movement inefficiency. 

Dr. Cpitano is certified in a range of soft tissues and joint manipulation techniques, which will open up new ranges to be trained thus making the athlete more efficient, transferring that into power. In addition this makes the athlete more durable, which safe guards them from injury and keeps them playing their sport much longer than what would be expected.