ESPT Welcomes New Staff

Elite Sports Physical Therapy is thrilled to introduce its newest staff members to the Fremont Community. Each of our therapists have been hand picked because of their experience and qualifications. At ESPT, our commitment is to provide you with the best physical therapy services in the Fremont, Newark, Union City area and this begins with our clinicians. Nowhere else in the area will you find a more complete orthopedic rehabilitation team, than at ESPT.


In September 2008, Floyd VitoCruz, MSPT, CSCS joined our team from the Riekes Center in Menlo Park. Floyd earned his Master of Science degree in Physical Therapy from UCSF. He has since worked in both acute care and outpatient orthopedic settings. He has had the opportunity to work with a wide array of patients, including high school/collegiate level athletes, weekend warriors, and professional athletes.

Floyd believes that by empowering patients with the appropriate knowledge, they can be proactive in achieving their personal goal, be it returning to a desk job or competing in the Olympics. Outside of the clinic, Floyd enjoys cycling, keeping up with a variety of sports, and keeping up with his culinary skills. During the winter, you can always find him planning his next trip to Lake Tahoe, waxing/tuning his snowboard, and praying for the next perfect powder day.


In February 2009, Charissa Chaban, MPT, ATC joined ESPT from the ValleyCare Health System in Pleasanton. Charissa earned her Master of Physical Therapy degree from CSU Fresno. She has since worked as an outpatient clinic manager in beautiful Hawaii and as a traveling therapist throughout California.

Charissa is an accomplished dancer and has had the unique privilege of training at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries in New York. Though her passion is in treating dance-related injuries, Charissa enjoys working with all types of patients from young to old and from sports injuries to everyday overuse injuries. Charissa is trained in mat and reformer pilates and continues to dance professionally with the Oakland Ballet Company. She will help us start a Dance Rehabilitation/ Dance Therapy program at ESPT- the 1st in Fremont!! (More on this in a future blog).


It is an honor an privilege for us at ESPT to continue to add only the best clinicians to our team. No other clinic can boast the credentials that we have at ESPT- the only Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist in the area, 2 NATA Certified Athletic Trainers, and 2 NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists. All of this shows our commitment at ESPT to the highest level of clinical care.

What is a Sports Clinical Specialist?

Almost every physical therapy owner in private practice will say they provide sports physical therapy. But the truth is that most of these owners haven't really seen "true" sports PT. They've probably gone from outpatient clinic to outpatient clinic since graduation, seeing a few weekend warriors or high school athletes along the way, and say they are thus qualified to provide sports physical therapy or sports rehabilitation. I think this is why some physical therapists and athletic trainers clash. They each feel that the other is not qualified to perform some of the duties unique to each profession.

Just as there are many areas of medicine that one can specialize in (neurology, cardiology, nephrology, orthopedics, dermatology, etc.), the American Physical Therapy Association has established 7 specialty areas that physical therapists can be board certified in. Only 10% of the physical therapists in the U.S. are Board Certified in a specialty, which requires demonstrated experience in the specialty field and a passing score on an extensive written exam. This allows the Board Certified Specialist to display that they have a greater breadth of knowledge and skills in a particular area of practice than their peers. This includes sports rehabilitation.


So next time you are looking for someone with true knowledge in sports physical therapy, you want someone Board Certified as a Sports Clinical Specialist. These specialists must be certified athletic trainers or EMT's, and must have completed at least 2,000 hours working directly with athletes. They know the biomechanics of sport, exercise physiology, and sports medicine. And they know how to get you back in the game!!!


For an article about treating athletes with quotes from our director, please see: http://news.todayinpt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080526/TODAYINPT0105/80523019

For more about what sets Elite Sports Physical Therapy apart from our competitors, please visit our website at: www.espt-ca.com. 

Your Doctor Is Important!!

First of all, thank you all for tuning into this blog. I hope that the information is helpful and allows people to become better informed consumers of our healthcare system.

What prompted me to begin this blog is a situation that I see occurring with greater frequency in today's healthcare system and economy. I see people that are not qualified medical professionals (personal trainers, yoga instructors, pilates instructors, massage therapists), providing medical advice. And the confusing thing to me is that people actually seek out these people for advice. It's true that some of them do have other credentials as a chiropractor, nurse, or physical therapist maybe, but most do not. I don't know if it is an accessibility issue because they can get information quickly or that they don't want to seek out their physician because of cost, but this raises a red flag for me.

What I observed was several people at the gym seeking out a personal trainer for advice on aches and pains they were having. The personal trainer then proceeded to provide them suggestions on exercises and stretching. One incident that was extremely disconcerting was a young soccer player that twisted her knee and the father was asking the personal trainer what to do. Instead of recommending that the father seek a medical professional for his daughter, the trainer proceeded to recommend exercises which included jumping and hopping without having looked at the girl's knee (Not that the trainer would have known what to look for even if they did).

What if the girl had a meniscus tear? Without a proper evaluation and assessment, what may have been a non-surgical condition could have progressed to a much more serious tear requiring surgery. These are things that a medical professional could have ruled out first and at that point the strengthening could have proceeded. Perhaps under the guidance of a physical therapist or someone else the doctor is comfortable with.

Doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, athletic trainers and other certified medical professionals have 1000's of hours of experience at school and in the clinic. They pay for their education for a reason. They are armed with information the general population has not had access to, and their job is to share it for people's health benefits. Most fitness professionals have not had this type of training.

Seeing a doctor for aches and pains that happen is very important for another reason. Your doctor can order tests to rule out other medical issues as the cause of the pain. If the cause of pain is musculoskeletal, than exercises or stretching usually will help. But there are times when the pain is caused by a pinched nerve from a disc in the back or neck or another structure like a tumor. The aforementioned medical professionals have the skills to determine what warrants further medical care. They know how to prevent you, the patient, from making the condition worse. Fitness professionals do not!!

I'm just hoping that people learn that doctors are important. With the Internet, sometimes people may feel they don't want to wait for the doctor's appointment or pay the co-pay for the office visit, but doctors possess a wealth of knowledge and information to help people heal. They have access to cutting edge procedures and technology. They can provide referrals to other professionals to help. I know that it costs money to visit a physician, but tell me, would $20 for an office visit be too much if it prevented a $10,000 surgery?