Common sports injuries happen to the best of us. In fact, 35 percent of injuries that happen in Canada are due to sports participation.
When they happen to professional athletes, they can be devastating. The great news is that most athletes fully recover. But these injuries can greatly impact sports performance without the right physiotherapist.
Whether an injury is acute or chronic, physiotherapy is one of the best ways to ensure you make a full recovery. You might even come back stronger than before. Here's how physiotherapy is beneficial.
Limits Tissue Damage
A certain amount of tissue damage might occur during common sports injuries. This tissue damage could also worsen if you neglect an injury and leave it untreated.
With regular physiotherapy, you can minimize tissue damage and prevent an injury from becoming worse. Physiotherapists can reduce swelling, pain, and stiffness through different techniques. Some of the most popular include massage, ice or heat application, manipulation, or specific exercise.
All of these techniques help to engage and heal damaged tissue, instead of neglecting it.
Keeps Inflammation at Bay
Inflammation is the source of many forms of pain, especially when related to sports injuries. It's a natural immune response by the body, but it is absolutely detrimental to your healing. When you don't deal with inflammation, this can lead to the development of chronic pain.
Chronic inflammation is what occurs when you neglect a sports injury, which can only make things worse over time.
Regular physiotherapy can help keep inflammation at bay with the use of ice or heat packs, massage, and more. This improves blood circulation to the area and aids in recovery.
Reduces Muscle Spasms and Tension
Muscle spasms often go hand-in-hand with common sports injuries. They can exacerbate pain levels and even make recovery seem impossible.
Specific types of soft tissue massage, manual therapy, and manipulation reduce muscle spasms or keep them at bay.
Your physiotherapist might also use electrical stimulation and hot or cold therapy to loosen up tight muscles.
Maintains Your Range of Motion
A loss of ROM (range of motion) for any athlete is disastrous to their recovery. Range of motion refers to how fully you can extend or engage a muscle, and for an athlete, ROM is essential to their performance.
A sports physio helps to maintain full ROM. Regular therapy sessions include massage, manipulation, and stretching exercises. All of which sends a healthy amount of blood flow to the injured area, healing the tissue at a faster rate.
Not only this, but you'll also receive instructions on how to exercise and stretch at home in order to maintain your ROM between physio sessions.
Rebuilds Flexibility and Strength
The flexibility and strength of your muscles as an athlete is also integral to your performance.
With the right physiotherapy, you can maintain these two key components of muscle performance. You can also prevent instances of re-injury in the future.
Your physio will prescribe at-home stretching and strength exercises to do. A good at-home routine can help you maintain your muscle mass as you recover in between sessions.
Recover from Common Sports Injuries Like a Pro
It doesn't matter what type of sports injury you've suffered. Our team at White Rock Orthopaedic & Sports Physiotherapy Clinic is here to help you make the best recovery possible.
We're proud to be one of the longest-standing physiotherapists in the White Rock area. With this experience, we are well-versed in treating a vast array of common sports injuries.
Wondering what sports physiotherapy entails? Check out this page for more.