The Role of Physiotherapy With Sports Injuries

TPhysiotherapy plays a crucial role in sports injury recovery, with several common sports injuries like muscle and ligament sprains, fractures and dislocations all being treatable with proper physio care and treatment. There are at-home exercises that can be done to maintain treatment, but visiting a professional physiotherapist is always best as they can dictate what treatment you need and guide you through. The good thing is whether you’re looking for a sports therapist in Sydney or Canberra, there’s always a clinic nearby.

There a few physio treatments that are common in almost every sports injury treatment plan which includes:

Ice Pack Application

Commonly used for acute injuries, ice packs are immensely helpful for reducing swelling, muscle spasms, bleeding to the tissues and pain. Often used as a starting point in treatment by physiotherapists.

Hot Pack Application

If your injury isn’t accompanied by swelling, then a hot pack is the method of choice. Also used to treat chronic conditions, hot packs alleviate pain and joint or muscle stiffness. If you have swelling, don’t apply a hot pack onto the area. Swelling is caused by bleeding to the tissue, and heat will only draw more blood to the area – making it worse.

TENS

Also known as Trans-cutaneous Electrical Nerve Simulator, this pain treatment uses low voltage electric currents to scramble pain signals to your body and is effective for temporary pain relief. It’s done with a TENS unit, a small battery-powered device.

Ultrasound

Used since the 1940s, this method is done by driving sound vibrations directly into the tissue, increasing blood flow which can decrease swelling and chronic inflammation. Ultrasounds can also be used to administer medication into the skin tissue without being invasive – a commonly used medication being cortisone.

Massage and Stretching

The most well-known physio treatment techniques, massage and stretching loosen or relaxes muscles while reducing tissue adhesions and decreasing the swelling of the area. Sports massage also focuses on preventative measures, as well as treatment during the healing process of an injury. With a variety of methods available, massage and stretching can be used across almost all sporting injury types.

Range of Motion

This doesn’t necessarily entail specific treatment, but ROM refers to the measurement of the amount of movement around a specific joint or body part. This assessment is typically done as part of a treatment after surgeries around a joint.

Strengthening Exercises

Weak muscles can be attributed to inactivity after an injury, with physiotherapists conducting strength exercises. There are generally two types of exercises performed – stability muscle exercises and dynamic strengthening exercises. Stability muscle exercises tend to be low impact but have longer durations, with dynamic strengthening exercises are more likely to be high impact with shorter durations.

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