Long before Akron Falls Park and Tigers lacrosse, Akron was nicknamed the Cement City. Today the drive from the village to Lake Erie Physical Therapy’s Virginia Street clinic takes about 40 minutes, and this is a practical look at physical therapy for Akron, NY residents: what the drive asks of you, how to keep progress going between visits and when a doctor should come first.
Akron Falls in every season
Erie County’s Akron Falls Park, at 44 Parkview Drive, spreads over 284 acres along Murder Creek, which drops about 80 feet over the Onondaga Escarpment in two separate falls. The county lists hiking trails, sledding, ice skating and cross-country skiing (ungroomed), and a state-funded stretch of accessible paved path, now finished, ties the park into the trail network that begins in the village at Cedar Street and Eckerson Avenue.
Sloped paths and icy days are hard on ankles and knees. Foot and ankle pain that hangs on after a slip or a long hike deserves a proper look, and so does a knee that started complaining on the park’s hillsides. Get an X-ray first if standing on that foot is impossible, the ankle sits at an odd angle, or swelling and bruising come on fast; we pick it up from there once X-rays clear you.
Tigers on Bloomingdale Avenue
Akron Central School District’s campus on Bloomingdale Avenue is home to Akron High School and the Tigers, whose teams include lacrosse, field hockey, wrestling, swimming, cross country and basketball. Shoulders take a beating in the pool and on the mat; knees and ankles take theirs on the field.
Runners on the cross country team may like knowing that Dr. Ryan Mitchell, PT, DPT raced the same sport in college, at Daemen. He and Dr. Will Tso, PT, DPT own the practice, and a Tigers athlete who comes in for sports injury rehab works one-on-one with Ryan or Will, starting with an evaluation that looks past the sore spot to training load and recovery.
From Cement City to a working village
The Village dates its incorporation to 1849 and says the name Akron means “high place.” Cement and gypsum carried the local economy for more than a century, and Erie County’s park plan notes a series of old mines beneath the falls and park. The Village’s history also lists manufacturers such as Perry’s Ice Cream among its companies today. Akron is the center of the Town of Newstead, which covers the farms and hamlets around it, and its ZIP code is 14001.
Plant and shop jobs mean hours on concrete, repeated reaching and lifting, and the back and shoulder strain that come with them. If you were hurt doing your job, the Workers’ Compensation process works differently from regular insurance, and we can walk you through it before your first visit.
Down Buell Street and west on Route 5: physical therapy for Akron, NY
From the village, take Buell Street (Route 93) south to Route 5 and follow Route 5 west through Clarence. At Transit Road, turn left and head down to Genesee Street, then let Genesee carry you onto the Kensington Expressway. In free-flowing traffic the trip runs about 40 minutes over roughly 25 miles, longer when commuters are on the road.
Two to three visits weekly is a common starting point, so set a rhythm at your first appointment: a 7 AM Wednesday and a Friday morning, for example, or late afternoons on Mondays and Thursdays. Between trips, your therapist can watch how the home exercises are going through remote monitoring in Medbridge GO, which matters more when the clinic is 40 minutes away.
Phone (716) 332-4838 to line up your first visit from Akron, or request a visit online. Most plans won’t make you get a referral first.