Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with the prevention and treatment of injuries associated with sports and fitness. Therefore, if you have a sports injury in Frisco, you should visit Frisco sports medicine.
Sports medicine seeks to help people safely engage in fitness activities and sports to reach their goals. Sports medicine treats a wide variety of conditions including fractures, sprains, strains, and dislocations. They also treat degenerative diseases such as arthritis.
If you venture into sports medicine, you are going to encounter four main careers including:
Sports Medicine Physician
Sports medicine doctors are medical physicians who specialized in the treatment of sports and exercise-related injuries and diseases. The majority of sports medicine physicians work only with athletes but they can address any type of sports injury.
To treat patients, sports medicine physicians will prescribe medication, perform surgery, and recommend forms of physical therapy. Sports medicine physicians usually complete the typical medicine undergraduate program and then specialize in sports medicine thereafter.
Osteopathic doctors are also sports medicine physicians. However, they tend to have a more holistic approach than other sports medicine physicians and they will usually focus on the musculoskeletal system.
Sports medicine physicians are certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
Physical Therapists
A physical therapist is another career that you can pursue in sports medicine. They will diagnose and treat patients suffering from a host of physical conditions which will include sports- and exercise-related injuries.
Their primary function is to restore function and mobility to hurt legs and arms or other injured body parts which may include pain relief and further injury prevention.
To be a physical therapist, you will need a postgraduate degree from an accredited institution. You will also need to be certified to practice in every state by the American Physical Therapy Association by passing the National Physical Therapy Examination.
Athletic Trainers
Athletic trainers work to diagnose, treat, and prevent injuries, including sports-related injuries. Unlike fitness specialists and personal trainers, athletic trainers are considered to be medical professionals by the American Medical Association.
An athletic trainer must hold at least a Bachelor’s degree. They must also be registered and licensed to work in their state.
Sports Psychologist
There is a lot of psychological work that goes with being an athlete. Though ignored in the past, many professional sports teams currently employ a sports psychologist full time.
A psychologist will help the team or individual prepare for an event. They will also help overcome emotional challenges that stifle athletic performance.
Athletes from different sports face different psychological challenges. A sports psychologist uses a number of tools and techniques to strengthen an athlete’s mentality before a performance or when recovering from an injury.
Kinesiotherapist
Kinesiotherapy is a branch of sports medicine that deals with the health benefits of physical exercise. They are responsible for developing and supervising exercise programs for strength and mobility recovery, especially after an injury.
The programs may involve underwater exercises for flexibility or learning to use an artificial limb. A kinesiotherapist should be certified as a Registered Kinesiotherapist (RKT) through the American Kinesiotherapy Association.
The above are only a limited number of career paths in sports medicine.