Sports players, like those involved in weightlifting, running, basketball, and other physically demanding activities, run the risk of injuries in their entire career span. Depending on the severity, an athlete may be required to see a sports physician or surgeon when an injury occurs. A physiotherapist may also perform post-injury checks and propose a treatment plan.
While you may have heard of the term physiotherapist, you probably need to know what they do and how they can help with injuries. Find out what physiotherapy is and how it can benefit you post-injury.
How Does Physiotherapy Work?
Physiotherapy is a form of treatment that aims to restore and improve a patient’s movement and function. Its practitioners, called physiotherapists, are often employed in clinics such as Fairfield Physiotherapy and similar sports injury centers.
Overall, physiotherapists can help improve the overall well-being of persons suffering from injuries, illnesses, disabilities, and aging-related issues. They take a whole-body approach to these deficiencies to maintain a patient’s emotional, psychological, and social functions. Thus, they can be involved in all stages of health care—from prevention to education to rehabilitation.
5 Ways Physiotherapy Can Help With Sports Injuries
Physiotherapy can be helpful in the prevention and management of injuries and their symptoms. So if you’re currently suffering from pain and discomfort following a sports accident, here’s how physiotherapy can help you.
- Reduces Pain And Other Symptoms
A physiotherapist will assess and interview you or request diagnostic tests, such as X-rays, to determine your next course of action. While waiting for the diagnosis, this medical practitioner would help ease your pain by using temperature therapy or the application of cold and heat packs, massage, acupuncture, or taping. These methods could be effective in relieving pain and reducing swelling and inflammation to make you feel better instantly.
- May Help Prevent Surgery
Before recommending you go under the knife, doctors would usually exhaust other means to treat your condition, except if your injuries are serious. That’s why it’s essential for any injured person to immediately see a doctor to prevent the situation from getting worse. A timely appointment with a physiotherapist or physical therapist may help reduce your chances of needing surgery to correct your condition.
- Enhances Muscle And Joint Flexibility
Muscle and joint flexibility is crucial for maintaining physical health and mobility. Sports players such as runners, swimmers, gymnasts, and other athletes also depend on flexibility to optimize their performance.
An injury often impacts muscle and joint flexibility, and physiotherapy intervention can help you perform specific exercises and stretches to restore your bodily functions. Enhancing flexibility works in two ways. It helps reduce pain following an injury, and as you continue to perform a range of motion exercises, you begin to gain better flexibility. With increased resilience, the risk of injuries is reduced.
- Accelerates Injury Recovery
Sometimes the most common sports injuries, especially serious ones, may cause the body to experience various changes that only physiotherapy could help address. Here are instances:
- Restores proprioception: The term proprioception refers to the body’s ability to sense its position. Often, an injury could impact this, causing a person to feel ‘off.’ Physiotherapy may correct this problem using various techniques.
- Corrects poor posture or habits: During downtime, injured persons may have developed bad habits that could impede their healing process. Meanwhile, others may have developed improper posture, causing muscle imbalance. Physiotherapy could spot and correct these issues to prevent further problems.
- Addresses other issues: People have multiple ways of reacting to an injury. So persons injured need to continue seeing a physiotherapist for other injury-related problems that may arise. For instance, pain in the injured part may have healed, but if you’re experiencing pain in another area, it requires evaluation by a medical practitioner.
- Integrates Home Care In Your Treatment Plan
If you’re injured, you’d likely be spending more time in your house, and what you do and don’t do at home contributes to your healing. Physiotherapy recognizes this, and your therapist would include home care methods to address this.
Some of these self-care methods include cold pack and hot pack applications and exercises. These activities would help speed up your recovery by facilitating better blood, oxygen, and nutrient flow to the injured part of your body. Exercise, meanwhile, would help release endorphins, making you feel happier and less sensitive to pain.
The Bottom Line
One of the critical benefits of physiotherapy is it creates a customized treatment that aims to accelerate healing. As every person’s body responds to an injury in different ways, a medical practitioner is needed to assess the cause of the injury and the personal limitations of a patient before designing a treatment plan. By doing this, a physiotherapist not only ensures accelerated healing but also helps reduce the risks of reinjury. If you’re this patient, you can quickly and confidently return to doing the things you love with the help of physiotherapy.