Behind The Scenes: Injury Prevention and Rehab
You may not have met him, but he has a huge impact on what we do
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me or may have heard my name mentioned but don’t know about me.
My name is Djimmer Bosman and I work as a Physical Therapist at Ascent Therapy Clinics DTC. We have 4 locations in the Denver Metro area: Denver, Littleton, Aurora and DTC. We are locally and privately owned and I am one of the partners in Ascent.
I received my Physical Therapy degree in the Netherlands and moved to Colorado in 1991. I am married with 3 children; Cailey (9), Ian (7) and Aidan (4).
I met Jim Miret through a mutual friend about 4 years ago when he asked me to work with one of his players, and have worked with Front Range Volleyball Club ever since.
Our treatment philosophy is very simple: we focus on regaining function. We believe that the body must be viewed as a single functional unit. Therefore, evaluation must include observing how the body moves during activities typical of daily living, to isolate dysfunctional areas that may contribute to a client’s symptoms. We treat the dysfunction, not the symptoms; the individual, not the diagnosis.
That may explain why you would see an athlete with knee pain work on strengthening the hip or an athlete with shoulder pain do abdominal or core strengthening exercises.
By working closely with the coaches and trainers it is our goal to prevent injuries altogether, but when an injury does occur, we aim to shorten the rehab time and minimize the time away from the court. We are able to incorporate a lot of the rehab exercises into the SAQ program at Front Range and thereby make the transition from rehab to training as smooth as possible. A lot of the injuries we deal with are due to overuse or imbalances. For the body to withstand the rigors of volleyball practice and play it needs to be able to put up with enormous amounts of stress. When something breaks down it will have a chain reaction effect on other parts of the body and can create pain and inflammation in areas that initially were not involved in the injury. A few examples are pain in the knee joint from an ankle sprain, back pain from a shoulder injury or shoulder pain from a back injury. Some of the overuse injuries are more gradual and very typical for volleyball; the most common ones are hip impingement, shoulder impingement and tendonitis in the foot. Instead of treating the symptoms such as swelling and inflammation, it is our job to identify the cause of the problem. This could be as simple as a joint restriction in the foot or as complex as changing the way somebody hits a ball.
I would like to include a little info on how to treat some of the more common aches and pains, but please feel free to call me for more detailed info.
Heat vs. Ice: Generally speaking, heat is for relaxation purposes, ice for inflammation and swelling control. The more acute the injury, the more likely you are to use ice. Think “RICE” with acute sprains and strains: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. If there is a lot of acute pain but no significant swelling try ice massage instead of ice packs. This is a much quicker and more effective way of controlling circulation. Freeze some Dixie cups with water, tear the top off and your ice cup is ready to go. Always make sure you move the ice on the skin, do not let it sit still or you will end up with a blister. Depending on the size of the area, ice for 3 to 5 minutes.
Acute back sprains do better with ice, even though heat would feel much better. Resist the urge to stretch. Stretching an injured muscle will more likely than not result in increased activity in the muscle vs. relaxation. A hot shower or bath, followed by an icepack is a much more effective way of reducing muscle spasm. Unloading the back by hanging over a gymball or lying on your back with your knees and hips bent at 90 degrees works as well.
Again, if you have any questions regarding injuries, aches and pains or would like to learn more about Ascent Therapy Clinics, please feel free to call me at
(720) 529-4802 or e-mail me at djimmer@ascentwellnesscenters.com.
