Physica Medica is the Baltimore physical therapy clinic built around three structural choices most practices cannot make: fellowship-trained clinicians treating you for a full hour, no rotating staff, and a clinical plan shaped to your case rather than to a binder.
Four clinicians with complementary specialties. You will be matched to whoever fits your case best, and you will see that same person every visit.
Dr. Maks founded Physica Medica in 2012 with a specific premise: that doctoral-level physical therapy should look like doctoral-level medicine. Full hours, hands-on diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, no delegation to aides. Fifteen years and several thousand patients later, the model is still the model.
His clinical interests are complex chronic pain, post-surgical rehabilitation, and the integration of manual therapy with movement re-education. He holds the FAAOMPT fellowship (Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists), held by fewer than 1% of practicing PTs nationally, and is a Certified Wim Hof Method Instructor.
Owner review Names per owner direction. Confirm "only certified WHM instructor in Baltimore" claim before publishing.
Max, a PT at Physica Medica is the most incredible therapist. I have suffered from chronic back pain for almost a decade, have been to literally a dozen doctors and last March had back surgery all to no avail. Max has been the only person to take my pain away.
Max is my go to PT for anything -- back pain, HIT workouts, and fitness advice in general. Super-knowledgeable and really gets the inner workings of your muscles -- knows how to create the type of workout that avoids injury and undue muscle/ligaments stress.
I’ve gotten both physical therapy and personal training from Max. In both areas his practice is unique. I have had a lot of injuries from running and tennis, and I believe Max has really helped me down a path to avoid as many injuries as I can down the road.
Three structural differences. Each one earns its keep in patient outcomes.
Chain clinics run on insurance reimbursement math that requires 15–20 minute slots, often in shared rooms with the PT seeing two or three patients in parallel. We took the opposite trade: out-of-network, full hours, one patient at a time. The result is the time to actually treat: assess, work, re-test, plan.
At most chain clinics, the PT does the initial evaluation and then hands you off to a tech or aide for the actual sessions. At Physica Medica, the doctoral-level clinician who diagnoses your case is the same one performing every minute of treatment, for the full course of care. Continuity matters in physical therapy. We built the practice to deliver it.
Chronic pain after an ACL repair is not the same problem as chronic pain after a desk-job decade. We treat them differently: different manual therapy emphasis, different movement re-education, different timelines. That tailoring is what fellowship-trained clinical reasoning enables. Protocol-driven PT is the opposite.
We combine hands-on manual therapy with techniques most PT clinics do not offer: dry needling, myofascial cupping, IASTM, fascial chain work, Wim Hof breathwork. Because real recovery demands more than a generic exercise sheet. These are not trendy add-ons. They are clinical tools, deployed by fellowship-trained clinicians within rigorous treatment plans, when the diagnosis indicates they will move your case forward.
The skepticism around these modalities is fair. "Are they evidence-based? Are they gimmicks?" We do not dismiss those questions. The honest answer is that each tool has indications where research supports it, and indications where it does not, and clinical judgement is required to tell them apart. That judgement is what credentials and time-in-practice buy you. We use these tools when they are appropriate, explain why, and measure outcomes against function, not against the technique marketing.
If you have been through cookie-cutter PT before and want something that actually works, you are in the right place. If you have not, but you have been referred here by someone who has, we aim to confirm what they told you about this practice within the first ten minutes of your visit.
Three structural choices: 45–60 minute one-on-one sessions (not 15–20 in a shared room), the same fellowship-trained DPT every visit (no rotating staff, no techs), and a treatment plan built around your specific case (not a corporate protocol). The combination is what is different. Any one of those alone you can find. All three under one roof is what makes referred patients stay. Book a 30-minute screen and we will show you in person.
Every clinician on our team is a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT). Dr. Maks holds the FAAOMPT fellowship (Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists, held by under 1% of practicing PTs nationally), plus the OCS board certification and Wim Hof Method certification. Dr. Chen is SCS (Sports Clinical Specialist). Dr. Rodriguez is OCS and CLT (Certified Lymphedema Therapist). Emily is a PTA specializing in balance and falls prevention. Together that is an unusually deep credential stack for a single-location boutique practice.
Since 2012, fifteen years of practice at the same Fells Point address. We have treated several thousand patients across that period, with strong referral relationships across the Baltimore orthopaedic, surgical, and OB communities. See our Fells Point page for more on the neighborhood and clinic location.
