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Physiotherapy for sports injury edmonton south

Sports Injury Care: 6 Ways Physiotherapy Can Help

Sports Injury Physiotherapy

Sports can be a fantastic means to keep fit, develop confidence, and get to know new friends.

Whether you’re an elite professional athlete or a casual weekend warrior, chances are at some point in time you’ve suffered an injury.

In fact, approximately seventy percent of recreational players will experience some kind of pain, ache, or discomfort in their joints and muscles during an event. If you play any kind of sport regularly, it’s practically inevitable that you’ll end up hurting yourself at some point during your athletic activities.

That’s because the human body undergoes constant wear and tear. When we perform recurring movements or activities, our muscles become tired and start breaking down sooner.

Gradually, these microtrauma wounds can lead to structural damage in the form of muscle tightness and/or tendonitis.

An accidental injury can prevent you from playing your best-loved sport, keep you from the courts or turf for an extended time period, or lead to long-term consequences including persistent pain or decreased range of movement. Additionally, if left untreated, these injuries can also turn into something more serious in the future.

Professional physiotherapy services can help with a wide range of conditions related to sports such as:

  • Hip pain
  • Knee pain
  • Neck pain
  • Pain from weightlifting
  • Pelvic pain
  • Concussion treatment
  • Chronic pain disorders
  • Muscle conditions

The bright side is that a sports injury doesn’t have to keep you off the playing field or court for long. Physiotherapy can help to deal with lots of sports-related injuries and keep them from becoming persistent. 

Here are six ways physiotherapy can serve to help cure your sports injury more quickly:

1. Reinforce Your Existing Muscles

You have most likely heard this one before. Every motion you carry out in your sport (such as throwing a baseball, running a marathon, or diving in swimming) needs a certain amount of strength in the muscles you utilize.

In the case of tossing a ball, that includes the muscles in your elbow, shoulder, hand, and wrist. With time though, these muscles can come to be imbalanced and weak. This problem can develop as we get older and our bodies shed muscle mass. It can also happen if you have been participating in a sport for a very long time without giving your muscles a chance to rest and recover between bouts of activity.

Fortunately, you can help prevent injuries and maximize your performance on the field with the strengthening exercises your physiotherapist can show you. Moreover, strengthening your existing muscles can help to deal with the discomfort, stiffness, and inflammation that come along with any sports injury.

2. Relieve Tendonitis and Strain

The connective tissue in your joints is subject to swelling and injury as a result of the continuous motion of your joints. However, if your inflammation is brought on by a tiny tear in the tendon, then physiotherapy can help to treat your tendonitis.

Tendinitis is an inflammatory condition that can develop in your tendons when they come to be swollen and uncomfortable. Certain activities, such as running or jumping, basketball, and tennis are particularly likely to cause it. If you experience tendonitis or a strain, physiotherapy can deal with your injury quicker. It can likewise really help you avoid a sprain injury from taking place down the road.

3. Cultivate New Motion and Conditioning Exercises

As you grow older, your muscles and joints normally end up being less flexible. This may be due to genetic makeup, injury, or an absence of regular physical activity.

Additionally, if you’ve been playing a sport for a long period of time, you might have suffered structural imbalances that make you more vulnerable to injury. For example, your shoulder muscles may be more powerful than your lower back muscles, which puts strain on the lower spine. 

If you want to help prevent injury and increase your agility, you should try to develop new motion and strengthening exercises.

Your physical therapist can show you the best exercises to increase your overall flexibility and restore joint performance. Doing so can help heal your injury, reduce the risk of recurrence, enhance your flexibility, and increase your overall range of movement.

4. Enhance Your Range of Motion

When you’re hurt, you frequently need to restrict your activities and/or your range of movement. Consequently, you risk suffering discomfort, stiffness, and loss of mobility.

Luckily, as you recover, your joints and muscles recover their full range of motion. This process can occur very rapidly; however, it normally takes about 2 weeks for your muscles to start to heal and return to their normal shape. 

To prevent injury and accelerate the recovery process, physiotherapists can recommend individualized treatment plans and workouts that improve your range of motion and provide pain relief. Doing this may ease discomfort, increase your flexibility, and help you return to your typical activities more quickly.

5. Reduce Inflammation and Stiffness

As you heal from an injury and your muscles get stronger, you may develop an accumulation of scar tissue. This is an ordinary part of the healing cycle and can help protect against future injuries.

In fact, it can really help you get back to your normal activities much sooner. To minimize your danger of suffering from tightness, physiotherapy will help you maintain your range of motion and agility, even when you’re not exercising.

6. Eliminate Recurring Strain Injuries

A recurring strain injury happens when a previously small injury comes to be worsened as you return to a more extreme level of activity. For example, if you’ve been playing basketball for a couple of weeks and you try to jump higher than you usually do, you might wind up reinjuring your ankle.

Recurring strain injuries can occur in any sport when the typical level of activity is increased, but they are most typical in sports that involve recurring motion, such as weight training, baseball, football, soccer, and basketball. Physiotherapy can relieve stress injuries by re-aligning muscles and ligaments, rubbing out knots or pain points, and enhancing the blood flow to the afflicted area of your body.

Wrap Up

Physio can help relieve lots of sports injuries, including sprains, pressures, stress fractures, tendonitis, joint pain, and joint dislocation. In many cases, you may even have the opportunity to prevent injuries from taking place in the first place.

If you want to defend against injuries and increase your effectiveness on the field or the court, you should contact our team of physiotherapists at Body Restoration today to book an appointment.

Physiotherapy will help you build up your existing muscles, treat your tendonitis and stress injury, develop new movement and strengthening workouts, improve your range of motion, reduce swelling and tightness, prevent repetitive strain injuries, and minimize reinjuries.