Provider Spotlight: Dr. Will Hartmann, PT at Lawrence University

Dr. Will Hartmann working with an athlete in the athletic training room at Lawrence University

When you work with competitive athletes to get them back to their sports following injury, does it help if you were a competitive athlete who suffered a few injuries and endured lots of rehab yourself?

Physical therapist Will Hartmann of Advanced Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine thinks it might.

To a certain extent.

“It helps athletes relate to me if they know it,” Hartmann said. “But I'm the washed-up version now.”

The former Division 1 athlete played five years of college football with the Wisconsin Badgers and had a litany of injuries (concussion, patellar tendinitis, lacerated kidney) connected to his days on the gridiron. Eschewing any details or elaboration, Hartmann recited his traumas like items in a bulleted list.

Just tell me a little about your most memorable, then.

“Yeah, the elbow injury in my first spring game at Camp Randall. I picked off a pass and dislocated it when I tried to score a touchdown. After the game, the coach saw me in the training room and said, ‘That’s why you take a knee.’ Thanks a lot, coach. Lesson learned.”

Now in his seventh year working with Lawrence University athletes, Hartmann’s approach is, in many respects, just that direct, albeit without the sarcasm.

“I tell injured athletes, if you want to do this, we can do this,” said Hartmann. “Or if you don't want to do that kind of work, we’ll just take it down a notch. It all depends on what the person wants to put in.”

Much like himself in days of yore, several of his Division 3 college athletes view their sport as their job, working out multiple times a day just about every day of the year. They bring that same focus to the rehab process when they get injured.

“I’m working with a girl who’s coming into the athletic training room twice daily to do rehab. That shows the level of commitment familiar to me,” said Hartmann. “I’ve been there; I’ve done it.”

His role at Lawrence is to help with the treatment of complex injuries. Hartmann’s sports medicine background and orthopedic training allow him to treat anyone who enters the door. Working with Advanced PT’s athletic trainers at LU, Hartmann is included when his expertise is needed, typically when an injury isn’t improving or rehabbing something more intricate, like an ACL reconstruction.

To further progress his manual skills and meet a wider variety of patient needs, Hartmann completed an Orthopedic Residency. An additional year of specialized training, the residency includes one-on-one mentorships with experts in the field to enhance clinical decision-making. Combined with his Strength & Conditioning Specialist certification, Hartmann is well-suited to communicate and collaborate with LU’s athletic trainers and strength coaches.

“We do a good job at Lawrence treating these athletes and getting good outcomes,” said Hartmann.

Advanced PT has deep roots at the collegiate level and has treated LU undergraduates—both athletes and students in the Conservatory of Music—for three decades.

At the time of this interview, Hartmann was preparing for spring sports at LU and the inevitable uptick of injuries by getting some care for himself: he had an arthroscopic knee procedure the following day.

And he answered the final question before it was asked.

“No, this isn’t related to football,” he said.