New Physical Therapy Center Offers Programs for the Injured and Athletic

When most people think of physical therapy, they think injuries—a blown out knee, tendonitis in the shoulder.

But what about a practice where therapists improve athletic performance or provide a baseline level for where cognitive and physical abilities intersect?

Mark Sirkin does both.

The 34-year-old Long Island native is the owner of , a new PT and sports rehabiitation practice at 460 Old Post Road, in the Bedford Village Plaza (near ). He selected the location for the large space, the beauty of the town, and the lack of other, similar services in the area.

"My wife Leah grew up in Bedford and we love it here," he said. "There's also no other PT practice in Bedford Village, and this is a great, large space. I've seen practices where there's one small room and a couple of weights and I knew I wanted something different."

Clients enter into a spacious waiting area that opens up into a 2,000 square foot training room with two treatment tables equipped with ultrasound/stim machines, a gym area with a weight bench, a leg press, squat rack medicine balls and kettle bells. The open space is flanked by two private treatment rooms.

Sirkin had plenty of opportunities to experience different approaches to physical therapy while completing internships during his undergraduate years at Ithaca College and graduate program at New York Medical College, followed by stints in Katonah, and most recently, Stamford, CT.

He said his philosophy is that patients who are being billed for physical therapy should meet an experienced therapist. He sees one to two patients per hour to ensure one-on-one training and doesn't use PT aides.

"My goal is to get patients back to where they were—and for some, that might be going up and down the stairs; for others, it's getting back on the tennis court. This is a results-driven practice," he said.

A typical rehab appointment is 40 to 60 minutes. If modalities—ultrasound/stim or ice/heat—need to be done, they take place prior to the actual exercise portion, supervised by Sirkin. Though he sees similar injuries in different patients—overuse injuries are common, he said—his program is not "cookie-cutter."

"My initial evaluation with a patient will develop our course of treatment," he said. "It's going to be very different for someone who wants to get back on the soccer field vs. someone who wants to get back to being functional at home."

Sirkin also offers an evaluation on a specialized equipment called Optojump, which measures and can track an athlete's performace over several sessions or after an injury.

"It's practical for patients in that it gives objective data about your progress in rehab, and it's a tool for athletes to develop a training program to improve performance. For example, you can measure how fast you swing a tennis racket or what your reaction times are, then we can develop exercises for that," Sirkin said.

It's also been used to develop a baseline for high school athletes who are at risk for concussions. Cognitive exericses can be incorporated along with physical tests to measure ability and response times, Sirkin added.

For more information on Tricare Physical Therapy, visit their