PHYSICAL THERAPY
Athletes Acceleration Physical Therapy is focused on helping athletes restore and optimize their performance.
Our elite physical therapist is a specialist in sports injuries and is highly skilled to offer the latest cutting-edge treatments to help you achieve your goals. Our ‘Back to Play’ therapy program is here to help you get back from an injury quickly while optimizing your movement to enhance your performance.
We emphasize a hands-on approach that includes a thorough assessment to determine what specific muscle imbalances and movement impairments may be leading to dysfunction or limiting your performance. We then offer an individualized therapy approach that produces amazing results.
Our individualized approach gives you the hands on time you need without being rush or overcrowded.
How are we different?
Since we specialize in helping athletes, we only work with athletes!
Athletes have different needs and protocols and our Doctorate of Physical Therapy is a specialist in sports injuries. If you are looking for a real ‘sports’ physical therapist that focuses just on athletes, then come see us at Athletes Acceleration Physical Therapy.
Get to know our Physical Therapist:

Physical Therapist – Lauren Alix Riccardi
Lauren Alix Riccardi PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, SFMA
Lauren Alix Riccardi earned her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Springfield College, in Springfield MA in 2014. She then went on to become a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopedic Physical Therapy after completing a year long residency program at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City. While in New York Lauren worked with all levels of athletes and contributed to developing the running analysis program at HSS. She also worked with the New York Road Runners creating educational programs for runners, hosting workshops, and caring for runners at NYRR races around the city, including the TCS New York City Marathon.
Lauren is a practiced public speaker and presenter, presenting research, participating in orthopedic and sports conferences, and teaching about return to sport, functional milestones after surgery, and a variety of musculoskeletal injuries. She is also in published in the Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Practice journal for a unique case study involving lymphedema in a young female, and use of a combination of exercise, manual therapy, and compression to help the patient return to normal function. She enjoys a challenge and implementing creative techniques to improve patient results.
Lauren grew up in North Attleboro and was a three-sport athlete throughout high school. She discovered her love for physical therapy after tearing her ACL playing soccer. Her goal is to teach athletes how to properly train for their sport not only to prevent injury, but to make them stronger, and give them a competitive advantage. Lauren continues to be an avid runner, qualifying for the Boston Marathon with a running program she created herself. She is a running coach and helps runners reach their racing goals while staying healthy, by incorporating a variety of exercise and strength training into their programs.
She is recognized by:
American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education (ABPTRFE)– Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS)
American Physical Therapy Association– Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT)
National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
Functional Movement Systems (FMS)- Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA)
How Can We Help You?
RETURN FROM AN INJURY OR AFTER SURGERY
Return from injury or surgery, restore function, optimize yourself, and get back to your past activities even better than you were before. We’ll help you feel better, but also address the underlying causes of your injury to prevent it from occurring again. Our 1-on-1 sessions allow for the time you deserve.
ENHANCE PERFORMANCE AND PREVENT INJURIES.
You don’t need to have an injury to optimize your performance. Our hands on approach to manual therapy and corrective exercise is designed to enhance how well you move and perform. Prevent future injuries by restoring imbalances and normalizing movement deficiencies. We specialize in all sports.
READY TO GET STARTED?
Contact us today to set up your initial evaluation and let us start helping you get back to play and performing better than ever
Frequently Asked Questions
Athlete’s Acceleration Physical Therapy is considered an out-of-network provider and therefore does not accept insurance. The patient pays at the time of service, allowing the therapist to focus attention on providing the best possible service while keeping administrative costs low.
You can call your insurance company and ask them “what are my out of network physical therapy benefits?” It’s usually a quick call to the number on the back of your card. Many times they may reimburse you for all or some of your PT services, especially if you have a PPO (instead of an HMO). We’ll give you all the information you need to get reimbursed. The traditional insurance model does not allow us to treat the way we feel is best for you or spend the time with you that you deserve.
This gives clinicians more freedom to spend time with each individual patient, and treat them the way that is the best, fastest, most efficient, and based on the current evidence, without the restrictions that dealing with insurance brings. This means that clinicians are able to get right to the point of your treatment and treat your injury, pain, or dysfunction with the highest quality care. Often, because clinicians are able to spend more time with patients, it translates to athlete’s feeling better faster.
This allows us to spend more quality 1-on-1 time with clients. While most PT clinics see you 3x a week with many other patients at the same time, we usually see you 1-2x a week. You tend to need less visits, and in the long run may end up spending less with us than a traditional PT practice when you consider your deductible, co-pay, and extra visits needed.
It is important to note that in-network provider status is not currently based on education, experience, skills, or treatment outcomes, but is often determined by the number of providers in a demographic area. At Athlete’s Acceleration, you will be treated by a Board-Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist Doctor of Physical Therapy, with extensive experience treating a wide variety of athletes and returning them to sport safely.
No, you do not need a referral for physical therapy. Massachusetts is a “direct access” state, meaning you can see a physical therapist as your first medical visit. However, if you plan to self submit your visit receipts to your insurance, you may be required to have a referral first. You can call the number on the back of your insurance card to determine the requirements, should you decide to take that route.
A physical therapist has earned a doctorate of physical therapy (DPT), and is an expert in evaluating and treating movement and the musculoskeletal system.
Physical therapists have education and understanding of the muscles, bones, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, joints, nerves, and energy systems in the body, and how they combine to create movement and relate to functional and sports related activity. If you are in pain or struggling with an injury, a physical therapist can determine the cause of the movement dysfunction or imbalance and help you reduce pain, improve motion, and regain strength in order to get you back to your sport or activity safely and with less chance of injury. If you are in need of orthopedic surgery, physical therapists can help you get as strong as possible, within the limits of your injury, prior to surgery to facilitate quicker recovery.
If you are post-op, physical therapists are educated in the healing and exercise progressions that are safe and necessary to return you to a high level of sports and physical activity.
Once you are pain free, you can then work with a personal trainer to continue strength training and sports specific activity.