A 6-Step Guide to Physiotherapy for Sports Injuries
Are you looking for ways physiotherapists can help you recover from injuries?
If you play sports or participate in other activities regularly, chances are you’ve suffered some kind of injury at least once. Whether you’re playing soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, running, swimming, or even dancing, you might have experienced pain or discomfort during exercise.
Here is a list of a wide range of common sports injuries including:
- overuse injuries
- soft tissue injuries
- disc pain
- frozen shoulder
- ankle injury
- blood flow issues
- apophyseal pain
- knee pain resulting from damage, degeneration, or other causes
Physiotherapy is often recommended after an injury occurs. The goal of physiotherapy treatment is to reduce inflammation, speed recovery time, and prevent further damage. This article outlines 6 ways physiotherapists help athletes recover from injuries.
1. Strengthen Your Existing Muscles
You've most likely heard this one before. Every motion you carry out in your sport (such as tossing a baseball, running a marathon, or diving in swimming) requires a certain amount of strength in your muscles. When it comes to tossing a ball, that means the muscles in your elbow, shoulder, hand, and wrist. With time though, these muscles can become imbalanced and weak. This problem can come on as we grow older and our bodies lose muscle mass. It can likewise take place if you have been playing a sport for a long time without giving your muscles a chance to rest and recuperate in between rounds of activity.
Thankfully, you can avoid injuries and increase your effectiveness on the field with strengthening exercise therapy such as balance training, and core stability training, which your physiotherapist can teach you. Moreover, building up your existing muscles can help to solve the pain, stiffness, and swelling that come along with any sports injury.
2. Get Rid Of Tendonitis and Tension
The connective tissue in your joints is prone to inflammation and injury due to the constant movement of your joints. However, if your inflammation is triggered by a small tear in the tendon, then physiotherapy can help to heal your tendonitis.
Tendonitis is an inflammatory ailment that can develop in your tendons when they come to be inflamed and uncomfortable. Specific activities, such as running or leaping, basketball, and tennis are particularly likely to trigger it. If you suffer from tendonitis or a sprain, physiotherapy can care for your injury quicker. It can also help you protect against a strain injury from occurring later on.
3. Develop New Motion and Strengthening Exercises
As you grow older, your muscles and joints usually become less flexible. This could be due to genetics, injury, or an absence of frequent physical exercise. Additionally, if you've been participating in a sport for a long period of time, you may have developed structural imbalances that cause you to be more vulnerable to injury. For example, your shoulder muscles could be stronger than your lower back muscles, which puts strain on the lower spinal column.
If you want protection against injury and to increase your agility, you want to try to develop new movements and strengthening workouts. Your physiotherapist can teach you the appropriate workouts to increase your flexibility and revitalize joint functionality. Doing so can help to treat an injury, reduce your danger of injury, improve your mobility, and increase your total range of movement.
4. Improve Your Range of Motion
When you're injured, you often have to limit your activities and/or your range of motion. Because of this, you risk developing discomfort, tightness, and loss of flexibility. Fortunately, as you recover, your joints and muscles gain back their complete range of motion.
This process can occur really quickly; however, it usually takes about fourteen days for your muscles to start recovering and return to their normal shape. To prevent injury and accelerate the healing cycle, physiotherapy can apply treatments and sports therapy that improve your range of mobility. Doing so can eliminate discomfort, increase your flexibility, and help you get back to your typical activities sooner.
5. Reduce Swelling and Stiffness
As you recover from an injury and your muscle tissues get more powerful, you might form a build-up of scar tissue. This is a regular part of the healing process and can help reduce the chances of future injuries. In fact, it can help you get back to your typical activities much quicker. To minimize your danger of suffering from stiffness, physiotherapy will help you preserve your range of motion and flexibility, even when you're not working out.
6. Eliminate Repetitive Strain Injuries
A recurring strain injury occurs when a previously minor injury ends up being exacerbated as you return to a more intense level of activity. For instance, if you have been playing basketball for a couple of weeks and you try to leap higher than you typically do, you might end up reinjuring your ankle.
Recurring strain injuries can take place in any sport when the normal level of activity is increased, but they are most typical in sports that include repeated movement, such as weightlifting, baseball, soccer, football, and basketball. Physiotherapy can eliminate pressure injuries by re-aligning muscles and ligaments, massaging out knots or pain points, and increasing the blood circulation to the affected area of your body.
FAQs on Sports Injury Physiotherapy
Can Physical Therapists Treat Sports Injuries?
Yes. Sports Injury Therapists have been trained in numerous orthopedic dysfunctions, including athletic injuries.
What Are Sports Physiotherapists?
All of our physiotherapists are qualified, well-trained therapists with extensive experience of many years in treating sports-related ailments.
What Is Injury Prevention?
Staying injury-free means identifying weakness and ensuring a healthy balance throughout the body.
What are Growth Related and Overuse Injuries?
Growth and overuse injuries affect ligaments, tendons, bones, and growth plates.
What Are The Common Growth and Overuse-related Injuries?
Common growth and overuse-related injuries include Apophyseal pain, Osgood-Schlatter's Disease, Sever's Disease, Little Leaguer's Elbow, Growth Plate injuries (Gymnast's Wrist), Jumper's Knee (patellar tendonitis), Achilles tendonitis, Plantar fasciitis, Patellar Femoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS).
What Are The Symptoms of a Sports Injury?
When young athletes and active kids complain of pain or any unusual symptom.
What Should I Do If My Child or Teen Has Suffered A Sprain?
If you suspect your child or teen has suffered a sprain or strain, the combination of rest, ice, compression, and elevation can be started immediately.
What Are the Symptoms of A Sprain and Strain?
Pain, bruising, swelling, and inflammation are common symptoms of sprains, while pain, muscle spasm, muscle weakness, swelling, inflammation, or cramping are common signs of strains.
What Is A Concussion?
It is a blow to the head and neck that can affect the way the brain works.
What Are The Treatment Options for Concussion Recovery?
Personalized neck and core strengthening programs along with cognitive and physical rest are cornerstones of concussion recovery.
Wrap Up
Experienced physiotherapists can really help deal with lots of sports injuries, including sprains, strains, stress fractures, tendonitis, joint pain, and joint dislocation. In some cases, you might even have the opportunity to prevent injuries from happening in the first place. If you want to minimize the risk of injuries and increase your performance on the field or court, you should try physiotherapy.
At Country Hills Physiotherapy in Calgary NW, our team of physiotherapists will help you build up your existing muscles, treat your tendonitis and pressure injury, develop new movement and strengthening exercises, enhance your range of movement, and decrease swelling and tightness, prevent repetitive strain injuries, and minimize reinjuries. Call today to book an appointment!