“Ed is great,” says Adornato. “His direction, feedback and motivation are excellent. Within four weeks, I was virtually pain-free and ready to resume training for my triathlon. I never thought it would be possible.”
Eight years ago, Frank Adornato began experiencing stiffness in his neck and shoulders from arthritis and turned to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset’s Sports Physical Therapy and Performance Center in Bridgewater for help. Since then, the 70-year-old retiree spends most of his time in St. Petersburg, Florida. But when the avid triathlete and marathon runner started having knee pain , he knew the best place to get the therapy he needed was miles away in Bridgewater.
Adornato, who retired from working in pharmaceutical research and is now a fitness specialist, spent a month in Bridgewater working with physical therapist Edison Au at the Sports Physical Therapy and Performance Center to get his knee back in shape so that he could participate in a triathlon back in Florida.
“Ed is great,” says Adornato. “His direction, feedback and motivation are excellent. Within four weeks, I was virtually pain-free and ready to resume training for my triathlon. I never thought it would be possible.”
Adornato reached his goal of competing in the triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida, which included a three-quarter mile swim, 20-mile bike ride and 10K run .
“Frank had an aggressive goal to be able to compete in a triathlon within a month,” said Au, who has extensive experience as a therapist for collegiate and professional athletes as well as for several international athletic competitions. “When I evaluated him, I first had to determine what was causing the pain in the back of Frank’s knee then figure out the root cause of it. In Frank’s case, he was having tightness in his ankle which contributed to stress build up in his knee.”
“Ed did an evaluation and gave me a list of exercises to do to ‘realign’ my left ankle and knee as well as to stretch and strengthen both areas,” Adornato said. “He demonstrated all the exercises for me and made sure I did everything properly for maximum benefit.
Adornato’s therapy included advanced soft tissue techniques such as Graston, a manual therapy approach that uses instruments that massage and scrape the skin gently, and myofascial release, applying gentle sustained pressure to the myofascial connective tissue restrictions to eliminate pain and restore motion.
“Frank’s case was a perfect example of how we used our expertise to examine the entire body as a whole, connect all the dots, mobilize specific ankle and knee structures and provide ‘custom-tailored’ exercises to correct and maintain optimal alignment to solve this biomechanical puzzle,” Au said.
In addition to rehabilitation services, RWJ Somerset’s Sports Physical Therapy and Performance Center in Bridgewater offers individual and group training sessions, specialized wellness programs and massage therapy. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset is the official health care provider of the Somerset Patriots and Rutgers Athletics.
For more information about the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset’s Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Center, call 908-203-5972.