7 clinics across Greater Boston
(781) 874-9294 Find a Clinic Pay My Bill
Conditions We Treat

Sports Injuries & Sports Physical Therapy

Recovering from a sports injury? Looking for a safe return to your sport or a way to improve your athletic performance? Boston PT & Wellness provides specialized sports physical therapy for athletes of all ages and ability levels.

Schedule Your Sports PT Evaluation
What Is Sports Physical Therapy?

Sports physical therapy goes beyond treating pain.

Our physical therapists work with professional, collegiate, high school, youth, and recreational athletes recovering from acute injuries, chronic conditions, overuse injuries, and post-surgical procedures. Our goal is to help you restore strength and mobility, rebuild confidence, safely return to your sport, prevent future injuries, and perform at your best.

Sports physical therapy is a specialized area of physical therapy focused on evaluating, treating, and preventing sports-related injuries while helping athletes safely return to their desired level of activity. A sports physical therapist considers the specific physical demands of your sport, position, training schedule, and goals when developing your rehabilitation program. Treatment may include:

Injury evaluation and movement assessment
Manual therapy and therapeutic exercise
Strength and conditioning
Neuromuscular re-education
Balance and coordination training
Functional and sport-specific retraining
Return-to-sport testing
Injury prevention programs and sports performance training
A dancer in a deep lunge
See It in Action

Return to sport, step by step.

Agility, power, and sport-specific drills help bridge the gap between recovery and competition.

Common Sports Injuries We Treat

Common sports injuries we treat.

Our sports physical therapists can help athletes recover from a wide range of sports-related injuries and conditions, including:

Sprains and strains
ACL and other knee injuries Meniscus injuries Shoulder injuries Rotator cuff injuries Ankle sprains Hip and groin injuries
Hamstring injuries
Muscle strains
Tendon injuries and tendinopathies
Overuse injuries
Running injuries Back pain Sports-related concussions Post-surgical sports injuries

Your physical therapist will perform a comprehensive evaluation to determine the factors contributing to your injury and develop an individualized treatment plan.

Sports Injury Rehabilitation

Recovery takes more than waiting for pain to go away.

A successful rehabilitation program progressively restores the strength, mobility, coordination, endurance, and sport-specific skills needed to safely return to competition. Your rehabilitation program may progress through several stages:

Injury Evaluation

Your physical therapist evaluates your symptoms, strength, mobility, movement patterns, balance, and functional limitations. We also consider the demands of your sport and your individual goals.

Restore Mobility and Movement

Early rehabilitation may focus on restoring appropriate range of motion, reducing movement limitations, and establishing efficient movement patterns.

Rebuild Strength and Control

Progressive therapeutic exercise helps rebuild the strength, endurance, stability, and neuromuscular control needed for your sport.

Functional and Sport-Specific Training

As you progress, exercises become increasingly similar to the movements and demands of your sport: cutting and changing direction, jumping and landing, sprinting and acceleration, throwing, catching, backpedaling, shuffling, rotational movements, and sport-specific strength and conditioning.

Return-to-Sport Testing

Before returning to competition, your physical therapist may assess strength, power, balance, movement quality, endurance, agility, and sport-specific function. The goal is to make sure you are physically prepared for the demands of your sport—not simply that your pain has improved.

Post-Surgical Sports Rehabilitation

Post-surgical sports rehabilitation.

Athletes recovering from surgery often require a structured rehabilitation program to safely regain strength, mobility, coordination, and function.

Our physical therapists work with athletes following procedures such as ACL reconstruction, meniscus surgery, shoulder surgery, and other orthopedic procedures. Post-surgical rehabilitation may include:

Restoring range of motion
Progressive strengthening
Neuromuscular re-education
Balance and stability training
Manual therapy when appropriate
Functional movement retraining
Running and agility progression
Sport-specific training
Return-to-sport testing

Your rehabilitation program is progressed according to your surgical protocol, current abilities, and sport-specific goals.

Sport-Specific Rehabilitation

Every sport places different demands on the body.

A successful return to sport requires training those specific demands as you progress through rehabilitation. For example:

Baseball

Throwing mechanics, shoulder strength, rotational power, and throwing progression.

Football

Acceleration, deceleration, cutting, change of direction, catching, throwing, and contact-readiness.

Basketball

Jumping and landing, cutting, shuffling, acceleration, deceleration, and sport-specific conditioning.

Soccer

Sprinting, cutting, kicking, change of direction, single-leg control, and repeated high-intensity efforts.

Running

Running mechanics, lower-extremity strength, load management, and progressive return-to-running programs.

Your physical therapist can tailor rehabilitation to the movements, positions, and physical demands required for your specific sport.

Sports Injury Prevention

The best sports injury treatment is prevention whenever possible.

Sports physical therapy can help identify strength, mobility, movement, balance, and conditioning deficits that may contribute to injury risk.

Sports injury prevention programs may include:

Movement assessments
Strength and mobility programs
Neuromuscular training
Balance and stability exercises
Landing and jumping mechanics
Running mechanics
Sport-specific conditioning
ACL injury prevention programs
Training-load recommendations
Individualized warm-up programs

These programs can be particularly valuable for athletes returning from a previous injury or entering a new competitive season.

Sports Performance Training

Improve athletic performance—not just recover from injury.

Following an evaluation of your strength, mobility, power, balance, coordination, endurance, and movement patterns, our physical therapists can develop an individualized sports performance program. Performance training may focus on:

Strength development
Explosive power
Speed and acceleration
Agility and change of direction
Balance and coordination
Mobility
Movement efficiency
Sport-specific conditioning
Injury resilience

Programs are tailored to the physical demands of your sport and your individual performance goals. Learn more about sports physical therapy.

When to Start

When should an athlete see a sports physical therapist?

You don’t have to wait until an injury becomes severe to see a sports physical therapist.

Consider an evaluation if you:

Have pain during or after sports
Recently sustained a sports injury
Are recovering from surgery
Have recurring or chronic sports pain
Are returning to sports after time away
Feel weaker or less confident after an injury
Are struggling with a specific movement or skill
Want to reduce your risk of another injury
Want to improve your strength, speed, power, or conditioning

Early evaluation can help identify contributing factors and establish an appropriate plan for recovery or performance.

Common Questions

Frequently asked questions about sports physical therapy.

01 / What does a sports physical therapist do?
A sports physical therapist evaluates and treats sports-related injuries while helping athletes restore strength, mobility, balance, coordination, endurance, and sport-specific function. They also help athletes prevent injuries and improve athletic performance.
02 / How long does sports injury rehabilitation take?
Recovery time varies depending on the type and severity of the injury, whether surgery was required, your current level of function, and the demands of your sport. Your physical therapist can provide a more individualized timeline after completing an evaluation.
03 / Can physical therapy help me return to sports after surgery?
Yes. Sports physical therapy can help athletes progressively restore mobility, strength, stability, power, endurance, and sport-specific movement following surgery. Your rehabilitation program will follow your surgical protocol and be progressed based on your recovery.
04 / Do I need physical therapy if I can play through my sports injury?
Not necessarily—but continuing to play through pain does not address the underlying cause of an injury. An evaluation can help determine why the problem is occurring and whether modifications, rehabilitation, or further medical evaluation are appropriate.
05 / Can sports physical therapy help prevent injuries?
Yes. A sports physical therapist can identify deficits in strength, mobility, balance, movement mechanics, and conditioning and develop an individualized program to address them.
06 / Can I see a sports physical therapist even if I am not injured?
Absolutely. Sports physical therapy can also be used for performance enhancement, strength and conditioning, movement assessment, and injury prevention.
Get Back to Your Sport With Boston PT & Wellness

Don’t just recover. Get back to doing what you love.

Whether you’re recovering from an injury, returning to competition after surgery, dealing with recurring pain, or looking to take your athletic performance to the next level, Boston PT & Wellness can help. Our physical therapists develop individualized programs based on your injury, sport, activity level, and goals.

Build the strength, confidence, and physical capacity to get back to doing what you love.

Schedule Your Sports PT EvaluationView Our Locations
Prefer to call? (781) 874-9294

Ready to book now? Schedule online