PHYSICAL THERAPIST TO OLYMPIANS

Robert Forster, PT, CEO, and founder of Forster Physical Therapy and PHASE IV Scientific Health & Performance Center in Santa Monica, California says elite athletes make great rehab partners. They follow instructions explicitly, and make it their job to get healthy as soon as possible.

“Working with results-driven athletes provides an opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t when the sole focus of physical therapy is to achieve increased function and decreased pain,” he says. “They are often so finely tuned that the clinician sees results in intervention nearly immediately. Misses are obvious as well. This of course, is rewarding in its own right, giving one confidence to stay the course when delivering the same therapies to the general public.”

Forster has worked with Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Kobe Bryant, and Allyson Felix, among others, and has benefited from putting his treatment skills to the test in what he describes as “the high-stakes arena of elite athletics.”