When an ankle injury sidelined Nate Smith after playing just 10 games in the NHL, he knew he needed to get back to form as quickly as possible to join the Arizona Coyotes for the 2022-2023 season.
After a total ankle reconstruction, he returned to his hometown in Tampa, Florida to start training at Competitive Edge Performance with clinician Brock LaBelle, DPT. Nate was already familiar with the NEUBIE e-stim technology and knew it could help bridge the gap between a normal rehabilitation and one that can return him to the sport faster and stronger. The Coyotes training staff, who had initially prescribed BFRT (Blood Flow Restriction Training), eventually agreed that the NEUBIE approach would be better for Nate.
Brock’s personalized NEUBIE program had Nate training with the NEUBIE 5 times a week.
Brock explains how the rehabilitation treatment program was laid out:
“We used the NEUBIE every session. Usually 5 times a week, but sometimes 6 times. We used everything from mapping protocols to identify the hotspots and restrictors within his nervous system to get through the tougher, early days quicker and then used microcurrent for specific tissue healing and leveraged all kinds of strengthening protocols from 500 hz to 55 hz. The rehabilitation started in the non weight bearing phase while Nate was still in crutches and a boot and worked all the way until we had him skating again.”
NEUBIE was chosen due to its ability to accelerate recovery time and healing time of tissue, assisting in the healing rate with microcurrent. By keeping a log with Arizona’s training staff, Brock was excited to show proof of results with the unique Physical therapy treatment approach.
In terms of total timeline, Nate’s NEUBIE training started in May 2022 and was completed in August 2022 as he began skating and training again.
Even the league was impressed by his quick turnaround as reported by NHL.com:
“The 23-year-old forward has spent the offseason recovering from ankle surgery, and though his original goal was to be ready for training camp, he’s trending ahead of schedule and may even be ready for rookie camp in mid-September.”
What had originally been estimated as a 9-month recovery based on average athlete injuries, the NEUBIE alongside Brock’s experience in setting and accomplishing goals with high level athletes completed the rehab in just a summer. The best part is that these NEUBIE protocols can work for elite athletes as well as everyday people looking to rehab from an injury in less time with less pain. Anyone can use it to achieve high performance results.
Learn more about the mindset and approach Brock and the Competitive Edge Performance team take to help athletes recover from injuries on a special episode of the Ready Set Mindset podcast.
As for Nate, he has always been a believer in the NEUBIE, but now is even considering purchasing a device for personal use. He’ll just have to wait until after Rookie Camp to find the time.
If you would like to see the game-changing technology of the NEUBIE device, which can train and rehab professional athletes in half the time of traditional interventions, contact NeuPTtech today. We make it easy to purchase or rent the NEUBIE so you can get started right away.
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