This article is one of a series covering sports injuries — causes, symptoms, and the treatments we use at Back and Body Medical in Midtown Manhattan. For the complete overview, see the full guide:
→ Sports Injury Treatment in New York City — The Complete Guide
Sports rehabilitation is a part of every athlete’s life, whether professional or amateur. Injuries happen, especially when you push your body to its limits.
But sports rehabilitation isn’t just for addressing injuries. Sports rehabilitation for improved performance is a natural fit for professional athletes. They call on it to stay at the top of their game. They know their bodies need to be performing at optimal efficiency to achieve their goals as professionals. It’s their job.
But any athlete can improve performance with the help of sports rehabilitation.
A part of total rehabilitation
Injuries are tricky. When athletes are injured, they tend to want to get back to their pre-injury state of fitness as quickly as possible. Even if they don’t make their living playing their favorite sport, they’re still athletes and athletes are nothing, if not driven.
Sport is life to these people, so living without sports is a kind of incarceration they want to end as soon as they can. Sometimes, that drives them back onto the track, court, field or rink before they’re ready. And part of readiness is priming the body to perform as well as it can. That means biomechanical issues and gait problems which may have contributed to the injury need to be dealt with.
So, sports rehabilitation is about creating total balance in the body. This helps assure athletes of reduced injury risk, as part of the process is advisory.
A professional sports rehabilitation expert is going to make sure you’re ready, that you’re knowledgeable about the issues that contributed to the injury and able to recognize and correct issues which may be contributing to imbalance and localized weakness.
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Early recognition and treatment
Early recognition and treatment of injuries is one of the most important indicators of success in sports rehabilitation. Too often, athletes play through injuries, which only makes matters worse. Ice is not enough and neither is a period of rest.
Injuries require focused attention from professionals trained to understand how the body works and what happens when imbalance is present due to structural issues which are causing poor mechanics to take their toll.
Once identified, an injury receives targeted treatment with exercises to restore and enhance flexibility and strength.
About prevention, too
Sports rehabilitation is intended to address injuries, but it can also serve to prevent further injury and re-injury of the affected area. Specifically engaging multiple rehabilitation disciplines, sports rehabilitation works in the initial phase, to reduce pain and inflammation. Once this has been done, rebuilding can commence.
Depending on the injury in play, sports rehabilitation can engage modalities as diverse as chiropractic, acupuncture and physical therapy. Therapeutic tools include functional training, manipulation, muscle reconditioning and bracing and taping, to support recovery.
Back & Body Medical
Back & Body Medical practices an award-winning model of multi-disciplinarian care in the heart of Manhattan. We treat all kinds of athletes, but we welcome all people seeking effective pain relief.
Sports rehabilitation for improved performance is one of our specialties. Contact us. Let’s get you back out there, better than ever!
Ready to get out of pain? Most new patients are seen within 24 hours — walk in or book online.

Dr Shan Sivendra MD is the founder and medical director of Back and Body Medical in Midtown Manhattan. A board-certified medical doctor, certified acupuncturist, and Director of House Physicians at St. Barnabas Medical Center, Dr Sivendra has been practicing in New York since 1995.
He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Saint Barnabas Medical Center (affiliated with Mount Sinai School of Medicine) and received the Resident Research Award for three consecutive years.
Dr Sivendra has a background spanning internal medicine, pain management, and conservative spine rehabilitation, and was licensed in both the US and the UK.
At Back and Body Medical, he leads a multidisciplinary team of chiropractors, physical therapists, and acupuncturists dedicated to helping patients recover from pain without surgery or unnecessary medication.
