Sports Physical Therapy
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Exercise in general is very beneficial to the body. It strengthens bones and regulates blood pressure, as well as keeps the body lean by enhancing the amount of calories burned daily. To maintain a level of healthy living an exercise routine is essential.
However, some sports related exercises and training methods are very hard on the body’s design. Runners can suffer from knee, joint and back pain; golfers tend to have strains in their backs or muscular imbalances due to a particular routine of movement, and professional athletes run the gamut of potential and probable injuries.
There is an endless roster of active people in which sports related injuries could affect. Most athletes that are involved in competitive sports push their bodies beyond limits of normal activity, stretching the threshold for pain and endurance beyond what it can normally bear. This can result in injuries, which lead to sports physical therapy and the road back to optimum health.
Each individual will have one –on-one attention of a physical therapist. A physical therapist is defined as an expert in “the science of healing and the art of caring”. Rehabilitation is a scary place to be for most accomplished athletes, because it defines them as different than they were before. But sports physical therapy is not characterized by the injuries that define the clients, but rater is focused on the reestablishment of their confidence in a healthy and strong able person.
Sports physical therapy is centered upon pain management, body mechanic education and physical reconditioning. Many different aspects of sports physical therapy have been developed over the years. An evaluation of each individual is considered first before any program is designed. Some program designs may revolve or involve the following treatments.
To just name a couple, heating and cooling an injury is a common form of rehabilitation, and in sports therapy methods they may use paraffin waxes, whirlpools, cyrotherapy, or hot packs. Electrical stimulation is another offshoot, which is technically called, “functional electrical stimulation”. FES is a way to “jump start” momentarily paralyzed neuromuscular systems within the body.
Sports conditioning programs are a safe way to reintroduce athletic training to an injured person. These programs slowly reinstate former levels of activity at a much lower rate and intensity. This gradual improvement will guide a client to the proper recovery that will last and enable them to once again perform at full throttle.
Sports physical therapy has been known to treat the following conditions: TMJ, Back pain, carpal tunnel, running injuries, post surgical rehabilitation, shoulder and knee pain, motor vehicle accident injuries, plantar fasciitis, tennis elbow, weakness, muscular imbalance, overuse injuries, and work injuries. Internal biochemistry issues can also be improved through sports physical therapy such as: impingement syndrome, joint separation, rotator cuff tears, tendonitis, labral tears, ligament repair, and shoulder dislocation.
While sports injuries can take time to heal, there is no better environment to be in than in an atmosphere where you are encouraged to reach beyond inhibiting pain. Nothing is more disconcerting than defeat, and sports physical therapy is the key to unlocking the healthy and strong individual inside of each patient.