By Sinead Nolan
Physiotherapist at Life Ready Physio + Pilates Warwick
Whether you’re an elite or recreational athlete, a team sports or individual athlete, an up-and-coming athlete or an experienced veteran, the chances are you’ve needed, or will need, a sports physio at some point in your career.
Sports physiotherapy is the first choice for optimal care and recovery when you pick up a sporting injury.
What people often don’t realise is that sports physio has much to offer beyond injury management.
At Life Ready, sports physiotherapy often includes a customised gym or Pilates rehabilitation program, hands-on treatment, taping, exercise and mobility prescription.
Let’s outline the common misconceptions regarding sports physiotherapy and how we can help you to maintain muscular health, prevent and recover from injuries.
Myth #1: Sports physiotherapy is only needed if you are a high-level athlete
This is simply not the case. Sporting injuries occur at all levels of participation. In fact, a high number of sports injuries occur in the early stages of taking up a new sport, while your body is adapting to the stress placed on your muscles, joints and bones.
The spike in training load that comes with a new sport or new season can also lead to injury through insufficient recovery times. Our physiotherapists can help you to develop a structured training plan incorporating a gradual increase in loading during these high risk of injury stages.
Myth #2: Sports physiotherapy is only needed when we are suffering from an injury
The initial stages of rehabilitation with our sports physiotherapists prioritise pain relief and restoration of function, aiming to get you back to your best as soon as possible. However, your journey to recovery shouldn’t end here, as it is also vitally important to address underlying issues which contributed to your injury.
With a thorough assessment, our physiotherapists will build an understanding of your body and biomechanics and identify any further risk factors.
Our structured and individual rehabilitation programs will aim to correct these factors while helping you to build an awareness of how your injury occurred and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.
Often, the most important and most difficult part of rehabilitation comes when pain has eased and function has returned. Motivation to continue rehabilitation decreases and it is easy to fall back into the old routines and habits that cause reinjury.
Our physiotherapists appreciate the importance of long-term rehabilitation and providing you with the tools you need to manage your training load, and the physical capability to withstand increases in load without injury. Educating you around reasonable load increases and monitoring your body’s response to these is an important part of your physiotherapist’s role.
It is widely believed that sports physio is only an option for people who are injured or in pain, when in fact, our sports physiotherapists are experts in prepping the body for optimal performance and injury prevention. For those looking for improvement in performance, our sports physios are here to help you to understand your body and to help it to function optimally.
At Life Ready, our sports physiotherapists are dedicated to help you recover from injury, assist in injury prevention, and help you return to optimal performance levels. We believe rehabilitation is not only for those who are in pain but of significant value to those looking to specifically improve their physical condition with a view to improving performance while preventing injury.
Find out more about Life Ready Physio’s approach to sports injuries here, or if you have any queries about this service or would like to arrange a booking, get in touch today.
