SPORTS MEDICINE
If you’re an athlete, live an active lifestyle, or you need a physical before a big event, having access to a skilled physician familiar with sports medicine is essential. Dr. Serge PierreCharles — a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Specialist & Pain and Sports Medicine Doctor located in Minneapolis, MN — specializes in treating sports-related medical conditions in patients of all ages and provides pain relief through the least invasive techniques possible. He has also served as a physician for sports teams, adding to his experience in treating sports injuries.
Call or click to schedule an appointment online today.
Frequently asked questions.
Sports medicine physicians are specially trained to prevent, diagnose, and manage musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries sustained during any sport or physical activity. They work to rehabilitate existing sports injuries and minimize the risk of future injuries.
The Superior Performance team offers various services, including physicals for patients of all ages, designing weight loss and rehabilitation programs, and treating several conditions including concussions, MSK conditions, and joint pain.
Injury to bone or various soft tissues like ligaments, tendons, and muscles are referred to as MSK injuries. They typically occur in athletes because of overuse, strain, or repetitive motion.
Sports tend to heavily involve your musculoskeletal system, making athletes more susceptible to acute MSK injuries. Common MSK injuries in athletes include:
- Fractures
- Sprains and strains
- Ligament ruptures
- Joint dislocations
- Inflammation
These injuries can often lead to conditions such as tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and degenerative disc disease.
The Superior Performance Center believes in educating patients on preventing and minimizing sports injuries. Some common precautions include:
- Warming up before an activity
- Resting between workouts
- Wearing the recommended gear
- Using the right equipment
- Listening to your body
The Superior Performance Center provides various sports medicine and rehabilitation services for athletes of all ages. Such services include:
Physicals for kids and adults
The practice team at Superior Performance Center offers physicals for both adults and kids to determine whether the athlete can participate in a specific sports event. It involves discussing your detailed medical history, a physical examination, and screening tests followed by clearance from your Superior Performance provider.
High-performance training
High-performance training helps condition an athlete to safely perform at the peak of their abilities.
At this stage, the Superior Performance Center team gradually introduces training for muscle performance depending on which sport the athlete plays. The training sessions improve muscle power, flexibility, and range of joint movements.
Weight loss
Weight loss is integral to pre and post-operative rehabilitation for patients with cardiac diseases, joint diseases, and diabetic foot complications.
Losing weight also helps decrease blood pressure and cholesterol, keep blood sugar under control for diabetics, and take stress off your joints.
Joint injections
Many athletes turn to joint injections to bring relief from chronic or long-lasting pain and to restore mobility. These injections are helpful for numerous sports-related conditions, including tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Call or click to schedule an appointment online today to enhance or maintain your physical wellness.
High-Performance Sports Medicine
Enhance your training experience. Superior Performance Center is proud to provide our patients with advanced technologies in sports medicine. Our high-performance sports medicine center will offer equipment such as a Zero-Gravity Treadmill and HydroWorx Pool for training and NormaTec and Game Ready for recovery. Other wellness therapies such as myofascial release techniques and acupuncture are also available. Take your training to the next level at Superior Performance Center.
Superior Performance Center has AlterG® Anti-Gravity Treadmills™. This is the ultimate injury recovery tool. Adjust body weight from 100% to 20% in increments as little as 1%. This allows athletes to increase their workload with a lower risk of injury. The integrated technology provides feedback to the athlete about weight-bearing symmetry, step length symmetry, and stance time symmetry. Anterior view live video monitoring system allows athletes to see their gait and make improvements in real-time. This equipment provides the sports performance specialists at Superior Performance Center with updated technology to provide the highest training capabilities.
The HydroWorx pool at Superior Performance Center provides the equipment needed to perform aquatic therapy. Aquatic therapy is focused on getting people in the water and taking gravity away from them. The water allows athletes to move without pain. Athletes can walk at .5 mph or run at 10 mph, and they don’t have a lot of stress on their joints while doing it. Whether you are a cross-country runner or just a recreational athlete, you can get in the HydroWorx pool and run a lot farther, a lot faster, without the stress on your joints. Whether healthy or injured, HydroWorx has proven to benefit everyone.
NormaTec is a leader in rapid recovery and is available for athletes at Superior Performance Center. NormaTec PULSE Recovery Systems are dynamic compression devices designed for recovery and rehab. There are multiple attachments for the legs, arms, and hips. NormaTec uses compressed air to massage limbs, mobilize fluid, and speed recovery. At Superior Performance Center, our athletes can recover faster between training and after performance using the NormaTec PULSE Recovery Systems.
Game Ready is another innovative recovery tool used by athletes at Superior Performance Center. Game Ready uses compression technologies combined with cooling to assist in the recovery process for athletes. This Game Ready equipment can be used during training to recover after high-intensity workouts, or it can be used as a modality in injury or post-surgical recovery. Fulfill your training and rehabilitation needs at Superior Performance Center using the Game Ready recovery technologies.
Superior Performance Center employs medical professionals who can perform myofascial release techniques to reduce pain, tightness, and spasms. Myofascial release techniques focus on the connective fascial tissue. Applying slow and gentle pressure to the tissues will allow them to elongate. This will assist in relieving any pain or tightness caused by the fascia. If your training regimen has been causing irritating tightness and pain, visit Superior Performance Center for myofascial release therapy.
Concussion Management
Head injuries can often be difficult to understand or fully diagnose. Be prepared to manage head injuries and concussions by offering your team or athletes baseline concussion tests. At Superior Performance Center, we offer ImPACT concussion testing and management. The clinicians at Superior Performance Center are Credentialed ImPACT Consultants, and they are trained to administer the concussion baseline and post-injury testing, recognize concussions, and perform management and return-to-play protocols. If you are concerned that an athlete might have a concussion, always seek professional medical care. Superior Performance Center can help you manage concussions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines concussion as “a type of traumatic brain injury—or TBI—caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to rush back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, creating chemical changes in the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells.”
Common symptoms of concussion include:
- Headache, blurred vision, dizziness, sensitivity to light or noise
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering, thinking
- More emotional, irritable, sad, anxious
- Sleeping more, sleeping less, trouble falling asleep
First, if someone might have a concussion, remove that person from any environment that could risk Second Impact Syndrome (SIS). SIS is a condition that involves someone who has a head trauma or concussion and sustains a second impact/blow to the head. This can be very serious, leading to cerebral swelling, brain herniation, and death.
Second, notify any medical professional trained in recognizing, diagnosing, and managing concussions. It is crucial to get a comprehensive evaluation of the event. The medical professional needs to educate the patient and any friends or family about the necessary changes to look for 24-48 hours after a concussion. Third, the medical professional will continue to monitor symptoms and ask the patient to perform various tasks or therapies to reintroduce the brain to different stresses. This is all part of the return-to-play protocols.
ImPACT stands for Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing. ImPACT is a neurocognitive assessment administered online in a controlled environment. ImPACT has designed a baseline test and a post-injury test that can be used in conjunction to determine if a patient can safely return to activity after a head injury.
For more information about Concussions or ImPACT testing, please schedule an appointment with Dr. PierreCharles and his team at Superior Performance Center.
Strength and Conditioning
Improve your fitness and performance. Superior Performance Center offers certified strength and conditioning specialists to coach athletes of all levels. Strength and conditioning can be utilized for weight management, injury prevention, or performance enhancement. Bring us your goals, and we will design a program specifically designed to meet your needs. Superior Performance Center wants to take you to the next level.
What is strength and conditioning?
The English Institute of Sport defines strength and conditioning as “the physical and physiological development of athletes for elite sports performance.” Strength and conditioning incorporate the body’s entire movement—core stability, strength, plyometrics, endurance, speed, and agility. This comprehensive movement mindset is why participation in a proper strength and conditioning program enhances performance and provides necessary injury-prevention exercises.
Can strength and conditioning be sport specific?
YES! The exercise prescriptions that are assigned during each individually tailored strength and conditioning session can be sport specific or focus on overall body maintenance depending on the goals of each athlete. Strength and conditioning programs can also focus on proper sport mechanics. Our certified strength and conditioning specialists can design programs that fit specific needs and requests of athletes, teams, and coaches.
Athletic Trainers
Athletic trainers are healthcare professionals that specialize in 5 domains: injury prevention, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, rehabilitation, and professional health. At Superior Performance Center, the athletic trainers work in the clinic assisting with evaluation and diagnosis and providing therapeutic interventions and rehabilitation for any patients that would benefit from additional therapy. Athletic trainers are also utilized for medical coverage at athletic events. They are trained to manage emergency medical situations, and they are also qualified to evaluate and diagnose injuries on the sidelines and make return-to-play decisions for athletes. Athletic trainers are an asset to any medical & athletic team. If you are looking for athletic training coverage with your team, contact Superior Performance Center!
Many programs are designed and implemented to help prevent injuries in certain sports. For example, athletic trainers can create and implement a program for your sports team to avoid injuries.
Some examples:
- Baseball & Softball – strengthen rotator cuff muscles to prevent shoulder injury
- Swimmers – Stretch anterior musculature and strengthen posterior musculature to prevent rounded shoulder posture and impingement
- Soccer – ACL injury prevention
- Basketball – Ankle sprain injury prevention
This domain also entails the many taping and wrapping techniques that allow athlete participation while protecting or preventing future injury.
Athletic trainers are required to maintain a CPR/AED certification to manage cardiac and choking events. Athletic trainers are also trained to write emergency action plans for facilities. These plans prepare for the activation of emergency medical services and proper communication with the first responders upon arrival. Athletic trainers are also trained in equipment removal for sports such as football, lacrosse, and hockey and the appropriate management of suspected spinal injuries.
Clinical diagnosis encompasses all the injury and medical condition diagnoses that might be asked of an athletic trainer by an athlete. Athletic trainers are extensively trained in injury evaluation using the proper range of motion and special testing for each joint and anatomical structure. Athletic trainers can also recognize certain skin conditions and internal medical conditions that might need a referral. One of the most valuable assets of the athletic trainer is the on-the-field and on-the-sideline clinical evaluation skills that are necessary to ensure the safety of athletes during sports competition participation.
Rehabilitation includes a large field of skills. Athletic trainers have the capability to treat an injury from its acute occurrence all the way until the athlete is fully ready to return to participation. The acute treatment of an injury includes splinting, bracing, wrapping, ice, medications, and amounts of rest. The progression back to health includes massage, modalities, muscle reactivation, balance, stretching, strengthening, and many other skills.
Professional health is the athletic trainer’s responsibility to stay up-to-date on the proper federal and state regulations, administrative tasks, and facility management. Ensuring proper medical documentation and storage is one of the essential responsibilities of an athletic trainer to stay within legal limits. Athletic trainers must also manage inventory and confirm that they have all the necessary supplies to perform their daily tasks. It is also the athletic trainer’s responsibility to write and implement policies to protect athletes, coaches, and fans from various environmental situations and to ensure an open flow of communication before an extreme event.
