It’s not quite a Grand Opening, but it is a big step and a new beginning for Dr. Ujjwal Shakya and the staff of MMA & Sports Rehab in South Arlington.
After almost 3 years of building a patient population inside Pentagon Mixed Martial Arts at 1041 S. Edgewood Street — near Columbia Pike — Dr. Shakya has moved his physical therapy practice two doors down to his own clinic at 1033 S. Edgewood on the same street.
Dr. Shakya says the clinic treats more than just the MMA competitor or athlete. “About 5 to 10 percent of our patients are MMA athletes,” he says. “Most patients have a number of sports-related injuries, chronic pain syndrome and acute pain/injuries from everyday activities.”
It helps that Dr. Shakya active in sports, which clearly helps him understand injuries specific to athletes. He has been practicing martial arts, particularly Muay Thai, for the last six years and plays cricket for the DC Royal Cricket Club locally.
Dr. Shakya believes that the clinic has experienced rapid growth and positive feedback because of widespread word-of-mouth referrals, evident by the sincere and abundant praises on Yelp, Google Plus and other social media platforms. He wholeheartedly appreciates patients for their kind words about his services.
The MMA & Sports Rehab practice includes multi-disciplinary approaches to disorders of general orthopedic, vestibular (balance), neurological and sports nature. Patients are likely to experience any combination of therapeutic exercises, Kinesio taping, soft tissue mobilization, Myofascial Release, Blood Flow Restriction training, Dry Needling and other manual therapies.
Dr. Shakya says, “We perform various manual therapy techniques along with specific therapeutic exercises, and patient education is a big part of our practice. We focus on a combination of excellent patient service, focused and effective therapy.”
But perhaps most crucially, Dr. Shakya sees a patient not as a single complaint to fix, but as a comprehensive and holistic person. “We see the patient as a whole person rather than just a pain in the neck or a low back ache,” he says.
For instance, he says, if the complaint is an ailing ankle, “We address the hip, the knee and the core. The patient is a full person, not just an ankle. I try to find the source of the symptoms, the source of the pain.”
Dr. Shakya, who is originally from Nepal, has the unique distinction of being one of the few physical therapists he knows of with double-doctorates: Doctor of Physical Therapy and Doctor of Manual Therapy, in addition to being a Board Certified Sports Specialist.
There are more credentials, and you can see them on the clinic’s website.
The transition from the gym setting to the clinic setting affords patients with opportunities for relief in both locations as Shakya’s practice continues to have access to Pentagon MMA.
The bottom line on the expansion of the business into its own clinic says something about the care and treatment patients experience at MMA & Sports Rehab. “Our patients have continued to support us and we are proud to provide exceptional care with expertise,” the doctor says.
For more information about MMA & Sports Rehab, see the website here, call 703-884-7084 or email at [email protected]. The preceding was sponsored by MMA & Sports Rehab and written by Buzz McClain.