Beyond Injury: How Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy Helps Austin’s Active Community Stay Strong & Pain-Free
A New Standard in Physical Therapy for Austin’s Active Athletes
Austin is a city that thrives on movement. Whether you're a runner pushing your limits on the Lady Bird Lake Trail, a lifter chasing new PRs, or a weekend warrior tackling the Greenbelt trails, your body is your greatest tool. But what happens when pain, stiffness, or injury starts holding you back?
Traditional physical therapy often focuses on managing symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of pain and dysfunction. Many clinics rely on insurance-driven models, leading to short, rushed appointments, generic treatment plans, and little focus on long-term movement quality. But at Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy in Austin, TX, the approach is different.
At Athletes’ Edge, your movement, strength, and performance come first. Every session is one-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy, ensuring that your recovery and training are customized to your needs—not dictated by an insurance company. Whether you’re rehabbing from an injury, dealing with nagging pain, or optimizing movement to prevent future setbacks, this is a physical therapy experience built around you.
Athletes’ Edge isn’t just about rehab—it’s about performance. If you’re looking for a clinic that understands how to help runners run stronger, lifters lift heavier, climbers climb smarter, and everyday athletes stay pain-free for life, you’ve found the right place.
Your Pain is Holding You Back—Let’s Change That
Pain is more than discomfort. It’s a barrier that keeps you from training, competing, and living the active lifestyle you love. Whether it’s low back pain that flares up after long runs, knee pain stopping you from lifting heavy, or neck pain from long hours at a desk, movement limitations can be frustrating and even feel permanent. But they don’t have to be.
At Athletes’ Edge, pain isn’t something to mask with ice and ibuprofen—it’s something to fix at its source. The team understands that injuries are rarely just about the site of pain—they’re often a symptom of deeper movement inefficiencies, strength imbalances, or mobility restrictions. That’s why treatment goes beyond the typical PT model and focuses on how your body moves as a whole.
Some of the most common conditions Athletes’ Edge treats include:
Low Back Pain: Whether from overuse, poor movement mechanics, or weakness, back pain is one of the most common reasons athletes and active individuals seek care.
Knee Pain & Sports Injuries: From patellofemoral pain syndrome to meniscus injuries, knee pain can disrupt training and performance.
Neck Pain & Shoulder Dysfunction: Often caused by poor posture, muscle imbalances, or overuse injuries from lifting or overhead sports.
Post-Surgical Rehab: ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, meniscus surgery, and spinal procedures require strategic rehab to restore strength and function.
Sciatica & Nerve Pain: Pain that radiates from the lower back down the leg can be resolved without surgery or injections through movement-based rehab.
Pain shouldn’t dictate how you train or live. At Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy, the goal isn’t just to get you out of pain—it’s to help you move better, perform stronger, and stay injury-free for life.
The 3 Phases of Rehab at Athletes’ Edge
Recovering from injury and reclaiming peak performance isn’t a quick fix—it’s a process. That’s why Athletes’ Edge follows a three-phase approach to rehab, ensuring that athletes don’t just get pain relief, but long-term movement solutions.
Phase 1: Get Crystal Clear on the Problem
Most people come to physical therapy frustrated and confused about their pain. Maybe you’ve tried resting, stretching, or even working with another provider, but nothing seems to fully resolve the issue.
The first step at Athletes’ Edge is to get a clear diagnosis and identify the root cause of dysfunction.
A Doctor of Physical Therapy will conduct a detailed movement assessment, looking at:
Mobility & Joint Function: Are certain joints moving too much or not enough?
Muscular Strength & Stability: Are muscle imbalances contributing to your pain?
Neuromuscular Control: Is your body moving efficiently under load or stress?
Sport-Specific Movement Patterns: How do you move when running, lifting, climbing, or playing sports?
This isn’t just about treating symptoms—it’s about understanding why the pain exists in the first place. By the end of this phase, you’ll have a clear plan of action and a strategy to eliminate pain and restore function.
Phase 2: Get Your Custom Plan for Recovery & Strength
Once the root cause of your pain is identified, your therapist will develop a rehab program specifically for you. Unlike traditional PT models that rely on cookie-cutter exercises, this plan is tailored to your unique movement demands.
Treatment will focus on:
Hands-On Manual Therapy to restore mobility, reduce pain, and improve movement quality.
Strength & Stability Training to correct imbalances and reinforce proper movement mechanics.
Sport-Specific Drills to retrain neuromuscular control and integrate rehab into performance.
Load Progression & Resilience Training to ensure your body can handle increasing training volumes without setbacks.
Rather than simply avoiding pain, this phase is about rebuilding your body stronger than before so you don’t have to keep coming back to PT every time something flares up.
Phase 3: Get Results & Stay Injury-Free for Life
The final stage of rehab isn’t just about returning to sport—it’s about leveling up performance while preventing future injuries.
At this stage, you’ll be pain-free and moving better than before, but the real goal is sustaining that progress. This phase integrates:
Ongoing Movement & Performance Assessments to monitor progress.
Maintenance & Recovery Strategies to keep pain from creeping back in.
New Goal Setting to help you continue pushing your limits without injury setbacks.
Whether you’re returning to heavy lifts, preparing for a competition, or simply staying active for life, this phase ensures that your movement remains optimized, resilient, and pain-free.
Beyond Pain Relief: Why Performance-Based PT Matters
Traditional physical therapy often focuses on short-term relief. The standard approach typically involves managing pain, improving range of motion, and discharging patients once they reach baseline function. But for athletes, active individuals, and fitness enthusiasts, baseline isn’t enough. Pain-free movement is just the first step—true success means returning to your highest level of performance and staying injury-free long-term.
At Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy, performance-based rehabilitation takes you beyond symptom relief. Rather than focusing on isolated exercises or passive treatments, your rehab plan is designed to rebuild strength, optimize movement patterns, and improve resilience against future injuries.
Why Athletes Need More Than Basic Rehab
If you're an active person, your body isn’t just performing simple daily movements—it’s handling high-intensity training, repetitive impact, and dynamic challenges. Lifting heavy, sprinting, jumping, or climbing all place greater demands on your muscles, joints, and nervous system.
That’s why performance-based PT integrates:
Sport-Specific Movement Training – Rehab is customized to your activity, ensuring your treatment mimics the demands of your sport.
Progressive Load Development – Strength isn’t just about lifting weights—it’s about teaching your body to absorb and generate force efficiently.
Injury Prevention Strategies – The best rehab isn’t just about fixing injuries—it’s about ensuring they don’t happen again.
Athletes’ Edge doesn’t just help you recover from pain—they help you move better than before so that injuries don’t limit your training, competitions, or long-term fitness.
Specialized Treatments for Austin’s Active Community
Austin is one of the most active cities in the country—home to runners, lifters, cyclists, climbers, and outdoor adventurers. That means athletes of all levels need a physical therapy clinic that understands the unique demands of performance-based movement.
Physical Therapy for Athletes & Active Adults
Pain and injuries don’t just affect elite competitors—they impact weekend warriors, fitness enthusiasts, and active parents trying to stay strong for their families. At Athletes’ Edge, treatment is built around your movement needs, whether you’re training for an event, recovering from an injury, or trying to stay active.
Common conditions treated include:
Low Back Pain
Knee & Hip Pain
Shoulder & Neck Dysfunction
Sports-Related Injuries
Post-Surgical Recovery
Sciatica & Nerve Pain
Sports Performance Training
Once pain is under control, the next step is enhancing movement efficiency, strength, and endurance. Athletes’ Edge integrates biomechanical assessments, movement re-education, and progressive strength programming to help you optimize performance and prevent future injuries.
Perfect for:
Runners looking to improve gait mechanics and efficiency.
Strength athletes seeking better mobility and joint stability.
Climbers and endurance athletes working on core control, grip strength, and injury prevention.
Dry Needling for Pain Relief & Recovery
For athletes dealing with chronic muscle tightness, movement restrictions, or lingering pain, dry needling is an effective treatment. This technique targets trigger points and neuromuscular dysfunction, improving mobility and reducing pain in a way that stretching or foam rolling alone can’t achieve.
Remote Coaching for Active Adults
For those who need expert guidance but can’t always make it into the clinic, Athletes’ Edge offers remote coaching and personalized programming. Whether you need rehab support from a distance or a customized strength plan tailored to your recovery, virtual coaching provides the same performance-driven approach without being tied to an in-person visit.
What Sets Athletes’ Edge Apart? A Look at Their Personalized Approach
In a world where many physical therapy clinics rely on high patient volume, quick fixes, and generic rehab protocols, Athletes’ Edge stands out by prioritizing personalized, one-on-one treatment.
One-On-One Sessions with a Doctor of Physical Therapy
Unlike traditional PT clinics where you spend most of your session with an assistant or doing exercises on your own, every visit at Athletes’ Edge is a full hour with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. This ensures that every treatment and exercise progression is based on your specific needs rather than a cookie-cutter rehab model.
A Team That Understands Strength, Performance, and Recovery
The Athletes’ Edge team is made up of former collegiate athletes and movement specialists who understand the demands of training, competition, and active living. Whether you’re dealing with an ACL tear, a lingering back injury, or mobility issues affecting your lifts, their expertise allows them to treat athletes like athletes—not just patients going through rehab.
Evidence-Based, Hands-On Therapy + Strength-Based Rehab
Athletes’ Edge blends manual therapy with progressive, strength-based rehabilitation, ensuring that you:
Recover faster with movement-driven treatments.
Improve performance through biomechanical corrections.
Prevent future injuries by reinforcing strong, efficient movement patterns.
Meet the Experts: The Therapists Behind Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy
At Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy, your recovery and performance optimization are in the hands of highly skilled, movement-focused experts who bring both clinical expertise and real-world athletic experience to their practice. Unlike traditional physical therapy clinics where you might be handed off to an assistant or given generic rehab exercises, every session at Athletes’ Edge is led by a Doctor of Physical Therapy who understands the demands of strength training, endurance sports, and injury prevention. With backgrounds as competitive athletes, strength coaches, and rehabilitation specialists, the therapists at Athletes’ Edge are uniquely positioned to help Austin’s active community move better, train harder, and stay injury-free for life.
Dr. Laurel Boyd, PT, DPT, CDN
Founder & Performance PT
As the founder of Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy, Dr. Laurel Boyd’s mission is simple: to redefine the standard of physical therapy by providing one-on-one, movement-focused care that helps athletes and active adults not just recover, but thrive. Growing up in Austin and competing at the collegiate level in soccer, she developed a deep appreciation for sports performance, injury recovery, and strength-based rehab. After earning her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Texas State University, she specialized in manual therapy, movement efficiency, and functional rehabilitation. She is a Certified Dry Needling Provider and Certified Running Gait Analyst, allowing her to integrate hands-on treatment with sport-specific movement training to help athletes unlock their full potential. Whether working with runners, lifters, or weekend warriors, Dr. Boyd is passionate about helping clients move beyond pain and return to peak performance stronger than ever.
Dr. Justin "Trax" Traxler, PT, DPT, CDN
Strength & Rehab Specialist
Dr. Justin Traxler—known as “Trax”—brings a unique blend of strength training, sports science, and rehabilitation expertise to Athletes’ Edge. As a former collegiate baseball pitcher, he understands the rigors of high-performance training and the critical role that movement efficiency plays in injury prevention and recovery. After earning his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of the Incarnate Word, he focused on ACL rehabilitation, post-surgical recovery, and performance-driven rehab for strength athletes. He is a Certified Dry Needling Provider, Blood Flow Restriction Specialist, and Running Gait Analyst, making him an expert at helping athletes regain strength, restore movement, and optimize recovery after injury. Whether you're a powerlifter struggling with knee pain, a baseball player rehabbing a shoulder injury, or a runner dealing with chronic foot pain, Dr. Traxler’s individualized, strength-based approach will help you get back to peak form while reducing the risk of future setbacks.
At Athletes’ Edge, therapy is about more than fixing injuries—it’s about rebuilding strength, resilience, and confidence in movement. With a team that lives and breathes performance-based physical therapy, you’ll receive the highest level of hands-on care, movement education, and sport-specific rehab strategies designed to get you back to the activities you love, pain-free and stronger than before. Whether you’re dealing with a nagging injury, looking for expert guidance post-surgery, or simply want to optimize performance, the expert team at Athletes’ Edge is ready to help you move better and stay in the game for the long run.
Your Journey to Peak Performance Starts Here
Rehab isn’t just about recovering from an injury—it’s about coming back stronger, more resilient, and more prepared for whatever challenges your sport or active lifestyle brings.
At Athletes’ Edge Physical Therapy, your treatment isn’t dictated by insurance limitations or generic protocols. Your care is built around your movement goals, your sport, and your long-term performance needs. Whether you’re working through a nagging injury, recovering post-surgery, or just looking to optimize your movement and prevent pain, Athletes’ Edge provides a higher standard of care for Austin’s active community.
What to Expect in Your First Visit
A comprehensive movement assessment to identify limitations, imbalances, and pain sources.
A customized treatment plan that integrates hands-on therapy, strength development, and sport-specific rehab.
A clear strategy for long-term success, ensuring that you stay pain-free and performing at your highest level.
Take the First Step Toward Pain-Free Performance
If you’re ready to move without limits, now is the time to take action.
Book a free 15-minute phone consultation with Athletes’ Edge and get started on a personalized plan to help you move better, train harder, and stay injury-free for life.