About Albin
Albin Mutholam | Orthopedic Physical Therapist | Chicago
I know what it feels like
to be failed by your PT.
I tore my ACL as a competitive dancer and weightlifter. The first few months of rehab went well — I was progressing, I trusted the process. Then I moved back home and started over with a new physical therapist.
She told me I could jump. I didn't believe her — not because I was afraid, but because she had never actually tested me. No force plate. No hop testing. No conversation about returning to dance or flag football or lifting. Just a generic protocol and a discharge date. I left not knowing what I could trust my body to do.
"Nobody told me whether I'd ever squat heavy again. Or dance at a wedding. Or whether the ache I felt was normal — or a sign I was falling apart."
I pieced it together myself over years. Today I squat 315lbs at 150lbs bodyweight. I run. I dance. I play. But my knee still reminds me what happened — stiffness on long flights, crepitus on cold mornings, a position I still can't sit in comfortably. That's not failure. That's the honest reality of a complex injury managed without the right guidance at the right time.
That experience is why I became the clinician I am. I specialize in exactly the cases that fall through the cracks — complex knee and hip reconstructions, athletes stuck in the plateau nobody warned them about, people who were cleared on paper but never cleared in their own head.
I'm the Complex Knee Program Director and Orthopedic Residency Coordinator at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush — one of the top academic orthopaedic centers in the country. I use objective measurement systems, evidence-based return-to-sport protocols, and the kind of honest conversations I wish someone had with me.
If you're stuck, undertested, or just not sure what your body can actually handle — that's exactly where I do my best work.
Beyond the Clinic
When I'm not working with patients or mentoring clinicians, you'll find me:
- Training at the gym
- Exploring Chicago's food and coffee scene
- Discovering new music
- Reading (current favorites on my /now page)