Sports physio
Sports Physiotherapy — North Vancouver
One-on-one assessment, hands-on treatment, and a load-based plan that gets you back to your sport — not just out of pain.
What it is
Sports Physiotherapy — North Vancouver at Medstar.
Physiotherapy at Medstar is the appointment your other appointments get compared to. You'll spend the full hour with the same physiotherapist — no rotating juniors, no shared exercise gym, no parallel-treatment model where you're plugged into a machine while the clinician runs to the next patient. Sessions are one-on-one in a private treatment room.
Every physio on the team is registered with the College of Physical Therapists of British Columbia (CPTBC), and our clinic lead, Amir Ahmadi, holds the post-graduate IMS certification through the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Pain (UBC). That means the manual therapy and dry-needling decisions you'd otherwise pay extra for at a sports-medicine clinic are baked into the standard physio hour.
We treat the same things the bigger downtown clinics treat — post-operative knees and shoulders, chronic low back pain, runner's knees, rotator cuff tendinopathies, hip impingement, ankle sprains, sport concussions, ICBC whiplash. The difference is the appointment structure: you get the clinician's full attention, and the plan we send you home with is one you can actually do in a busy week, not a 14-exercise circuit you'll abandon by Tuesday.
How it works
Inside a session.
The first visit is 60 minutes. We start with a structured clinical history — what happened, when, what makes it better, what makes it worse, what you're trying to get back to. Then a hands-on physical exam: range of motion, strength testing, specific orthopaedic tests for the joint and surrounding tissues, and a movement assessment that puts the whole chain under load.
By the end of that hour, you'll leave with three things: a working diagnosis (or a short list if the picture is genuinely mixed), your first round of treatment already delivered (manual therapy, IMS, or laser as indicated), and a small set of exercises calibrated to where you actually are — not a generic post-injury protocol off a worksheet.
Follow-up visits are 30–45 minutes depending on what the case needs. Most patients are reassessed every third or fourth visit so the plan stays calibrated to your real progress, not the timeline we estimated on day one.
Conditions we treat with this
See how sports physiotherapy fits into specific recovery plans.
- Knee injury & ACL recovery — post-op and sport knees
- Shoulder & rotator cuff — impingement, tears, frozen shoulder
- Low back pain & sciatica — acute flares and chronic ache
- Whiplash & ICBC injuries — first 12 weeks matter
- Runner's knee & IT band — patellofemoral pain
- Hip pain & groin injuries — FAI, labrum, gluteal tendinopathy
What to expect
Most musculoskeletal cases resolve inside 6–10 visits. You'll typically notice a meaningful change after the first 2–3 sessions; if you don't, we tell you that on visit three and adjust the plan — we don't string people along.
Talk to us
Not sure if it's the right fit?
Send a quick note about what's going on. A physiotherapist will read it and tell you honestly whether sports physiotherapy is the right tool — or whether something else makes more sense first.
Common questions
About sports physiotherapy.
Do I need a doctor's referral to see a physio in BC?+
No. Physiotherapists in British Columbia are primary-care practitioners — you can book directly without a referral. Your extended-health plan may still require one for reimbursement, so check the wording on your policy. ICBC and WorkSafeBC do not require a physician referral for physiotherapy.
How long is a session and what does it cost?+
Initial assessment is 60 minutes; subsequent visits are 30 or 45 minutes depending on what the case needs. Current rates and direct-billing details are on the Jane booking page — we direct-bill most extended-health insurers, ICBC, WorkSafeBC, RCMP, and Veterans Affairs Canada, so most patients pay nothing at the visit.
What's the difference between physiotherapy and chiropractic, RMT, or osteopathy?+
Physiotherapists are diagnostic primary-care clinicians regulated by the CPTBC — we assess, diagnose, and treat using manual therapy, exercise prescription, and electrotherapeutic modalities. Chiropractors focus primarily on spinal manipulation, RMTs deliver soft-tissue massage (no diagnostic scope), and manual osteopaths use a whole-body hands-on framework. The disciplines overlap but the regulated scopes differ. We commonly co-treat with our in-house RMT and osteopath when the case warrants it.
Will I be doing exercises every day for the rest of my life?+
No. The goal is to rebuild enough capacity in the relevant tissue that you stop needing to think about it. Most patients graduate to a short maintenance routine they can fold into normal training — 5–10 minutes a few times a week, not 45 minutes daily.
What should I wear to my first appointment?+
Comfortable, loose-fitting clothes that let us see and access the body region we're working on. For lower-limb assessments, shorts work well; for shoulder or back work, a tank top or athletic top. We have private rooms and clean gowns if you'd rather change here.
Do you treat children and adolescents?+
Yes — primarily adolescent sport injuries (growth-plate-related issues like Osgood-Schlatter, Sever's, sport concussions, ACL post-op). A parent or guardian attends the first visit for patients under 16.
What if I've already been to physio elsewhere and it didn't help?+
Bring whatever notes, exercise sheets, or imaging reports you have. The most common reasons previous physio didn't work are: load progression that was too slow, treatment focused on the painful joint without addressing the chain above and below, or a diagnosis that wasn't quite right. We'll reassess from scratch and tell you honestly what we'd do differently.
This page is for general information only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Treatment suitability is determined case-by-case during assessment; not every service is appropriate for every presentation. If you have a medical implant, are pregnant, take blood thinners, or have an active infection, tell your physiotherapist before treatment. Physiotherapy at Medstar Sport Physio & Health is provided by physiotherapists registered with the College of Physical Therapists of British Columbia (CPTBC).
Ready to book?