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Flipstar Gymnastics Academy West Michigan Physical Therapy LLC Book Mark Sports Performance Videos |
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Sadly, I treat numerous children with severe strain injuries that are typically seen in adults. I work with a 12-year-old girl, who has such intense back pain that she can’t sit longer than 10 minutes. She is missing school because sitting at a desk is just too painful. Children are competing year-round in a highly competitive climate.
Research is currently being done by experts to determine the factors behind the rising injury rates, but there are no easy answers. It does not take an expert to understand that children, just like adults, have a better chance at more successful, more injury-free years in recreational or competitive sports activities if they have the strength, flexibility, and endurance required for the activity before they start the activity. Would you try to run a marathon without training? Why do we expect our children to run on a soccer field, throw a ball, or workout in a gym for extended hours without training?
My goal is to provide parents, coaches, and young gymnasts with user-friendly programs to gain a level of fitness before competing.
Physical therapists (PT) are medically trained professionals who specialize in the analysis of movement. We examine how and why our muscles and joints do or do not work together in everyday life and sports activities. Our role is to guide the gymnast towards owning a healthy body and to assist them in restoring an injured body.
Kathy Tooman, PT, is a graduate of the University of Michigan physical therapy program. Her diverse clinical experience includes teaching and treatment in traditional hospital and out-patient clinic settings, as well as administration and education in a physical therapist assistant program. Less traditionally, she has worked with clients in swimming pools, gyms, church basements, athletic fields, and even under bleachers.
Her clinical skills are enhanced by being the lifetime owner of a body in constant need of training, and as a mother of two very athletic, devastatingly handsome sons.
