Empowering Athletes, a Hanover-based athletic training clinic, wants local families to think about sports care as more than a place athletes go after an injury.
South Shore Times sat down recently with Jaimie Doherty and Samantha Wall from Empowering Athletes over coffee at the first Media Cafe, a new conversation series where anyone in the community can bring news to us. The discussion covered how the business differs from a traditional gym, who it serves and why the staff sees growing pressure on young athletes across the South Shore.
What is Empowering Athletes?
We are certified athletic trainers with master’s degrees, and we work with people from the evaluation of an injury to the rehab of an injury to sport performance. We also work on preventing or reducing the risk of injuries, depending on what each person needs.
We work with all levels. We are launching our first through third grade class, and we also have adult classes, speed and agility, dance-specific work and gymnastics-specific work.
How long has Empowering Athletes been open?
The business started nine years ago. It was first located down the street in Pembroke and moved to Hanover two years ago.
Is Empowering Athletes only for people who are injured?
It can be for all of it. Someone can come in because they are hurt, because a season is coming up, because they want to start running or because something does not feel right.
We also do hands-on work, including cupping, manual therapy and other soft tissue work. The idea is to look at the person, how they move and what they want to get back to doing.
How is this different from a gym?
It is totally different. We are not just a place where someone gets dropped off to work out. We are one-on-one with each person for an hour, so there is time to understand what is going on with the injury and what is happening with the person that day.
That means asking where someone is mentally, whether they are too exhausted, whether they slept enough and whether they are hydrated. The mental, the nutritional and the physical pieces all matter.
What does a holistic approach mean? Is it kind of an East meets West kind of thing?
We care for the athlete, but we also care about the whole family. We see parents and siblings, and we try to understand more than just the specific injury.
There is more to a person than their injury, and there is more to sports than just the sport. We individualize care for each person who walks through the door and for their families.
How does Empowering Athletes compare with physical therapy?
We do have physical therapy in the clinic that works in the back of our office, but we're more specifically focused on one-on-one athletic care.
Athletic trainers have more acute care training and more education specific to athletes. Physical therapy can cover a very broad range of rehabilitation. We are looking at people who move and groove.
Do you offer classes and one-on-one care?
We offer both. The classes are adaptable because we usually know who is coming in, what they are working on and what modifications they may need.
The classes are small. We usually limit them to six or eight, so they are still really individualized. That makes it possible to adjust the workout for someone coming back from an injury while still supporting healthy athletes in the same group.
What do you want people to understand about the business?
The care is very individualized. We know the business can be a cost, but we are trying to show that the cost is worth the benefit.
This is about looking at the whole person. It is not just about the injury, and it is not just about the sport.
As a dad, I'm noticing that sports here on the South Shore seem a lot more intense than when I was a kid. Are you seeing more young athletes getting injured?
Yes, we are seeing more young athletes injured. A helpful rule is that young athletes should not spend more hours per week in a sport than their age. If someone is a 12-year-old gymnast, they should only work out 12 hours a week.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, athletes have been doing way more than that. There have been increases in injury, including a higher increase in female athletes tearing ACLs earlier and earlier.
And female athletes are at higher risk because of basic anatomy. Relative energy deficiency in sport is another issue, when people are not getting enough calories for what they are doing and are not sleeping enough for what they are doing.
Sleep is especially important for adolescents. If kids are playing sports more than 12 hours a week, when are they doing homework, when are they sleeping and are they getting enough rest before getting up for school?
Can active adults use Empowering Athletes too?
Anybody can be an athlete depending on what they want to do. It does not have to be a team sport.
If there is a red flag, such as a possible ligament issue, the person will be referred out. But if there is not a red flag, the clinic can start by looking at where the person is, how they are moving and what might be causing the problem.