Sports: Therapy and Rehabilitation After An Athlete’s Injury

Inclined with playing sports? A player may suffer an injury before, during and after a game.  Therapy and rehabilitation are recommended. If you want to bounce up your performance to your chosen sport, visit this link.

Why does a player suffer an injury?

There are causes why a player suffers from sports injuries. Common causes of sports injury are poor training methods, weak musculoskeletal system, and absence of preventive measures before and after a game. These are only a few.

In line with these injuries, they will need a sports therapy. Sports therapy is healthcare that helps athletes prevent injuries and secures the rehabilitation of the athlete. It leads the patient to return to their usual fitness level.

Some athletes also tend to have physical conditions which will affect their play and might lead to having an injury. The athletes shall also consider the factor of choosing the proper sportswear for the game. It can also be a cause to acquire an injury.

Hence, in case an athlete had an injury, they can undergo treatments/therapies to work out the injury. Mostly, injuries take only common treatments and seldomly needs severe ones.

Sports therapy vs. physical therapy

How are these two different? People tend to mistake these two as the same. On the contrary, these two are different types of healthcare. Let’s get into physical therapy first.

Physical therapy

It is healthcare that helps patients to restore mobility and reduction of pain. There is no specific patient cured under this specialization. Different types of patients can undergo physical therapy. The common goal is to bring them back to their normal routines and day-to-day activities.

Physical therapy can work with different ages, from newborn to the elderlies. They focus on health conditions that affect the patient’s physical ability to move and perform activities. Correspondingly, treatment of various health issues is highly possible through physical therapy.

In light of helping the patients, specialists under physical therapy educate them some exercises. These exercises will help the patients move and function greatly compared to their current condition with concern.

Physical therapy can be manually-applied exercises based on the patient’s physical condition. There are roughly different physical programs to apply. They made these programs to suit every patient’s condition.

Physical therapists work widely in the industry. It can be at hospitals, private homes/clinics, schools, and many more. They are widely spread to conduct their specialization.

Sports therapy

On the other hand, sports therapy is healthcare that provides treatment and recommendations to prevent injury occurrence. They mainly work with athletes and sport-related personalities. This includes the rehabilitation of the athlete. Returning them to their usual body fit, and addresses the injury after it has occurred. They help athletes maintain a healthy body to reach out their maximum capacity.

They measure an athlete’s best performance through the absence of injury. With this in mind, sports therapy takes place. Achieving this will not be possible without sports therapy and the athlete’s cooperation.

Sports therapists apply rehabilitation to the condition that the athlete suffered an injury. They decide it here if the athlete can safely return to their practice and sports’ competitions. Sports therapy and rehabilitation is equally important as the athletes and professionals inclined in sports. In fact, it covers all sports-related injuries up to the sprained ankle.

Sports therapists typically work with sports teams or clubs, health and fitness clubs or sports and leisure centres. They can also do roles such as teaching, coaching or provide personal training among athletes.

Sports rehabilitation

Rehabilitation took place when an athlete suffered an injury during practice or from the game. Sports rehabilitation have different stages, including the reduction of pain and swelling. Next is joint mobility restoration, which also includes the range of motion. Additionally, it targets to recover the strength and endurance of the athlete. Identically, the recovery of coordination is also counted. Lastly, they rehabilitate to retrieve the capacity of the athlete to perform complex movements. A home exercise machine can help the injured person to gain back their movement.

All things considered, athletes must be able to do preventive measures to avoid injuries. By continuously doing this, the athletes can maintain their best condition to execute the best performance for their chosen sports.

Importance of Rehabilitation

There must be someone around who knows how to do sports rehabilitation. This is to ensure that the athletes grab the chance to bring back the maximum capacities of their performances. Rehabilitation is not only to apply therapy to an injury but also to provide measures to avoid acquiring those injuries again. As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”.

Sports rehabilitation services needed by a team longs for an injury-free setup. This will enable them to be active in their chose sports all the time. The athletes shall ensure complete healthy well-being before heading out to the actual game. To give the best performance is as equally important as to keep themselves safe from injuries.

Various techniques can be applied to be able to achieve this scenario-an injury-free performance. With the presence of the best sports therapists, no athletes could ever go wrong as long as they follow the measures responsibly. Open this page to see how vitamins can help your rehabilitation.

Common treatments applied after an injury

Particularly, they initially apply RICE treatment after an injury. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Rest is having to rest the injured part for at least 48 hours. Secondly, ice is applying a cold compress to the affected area for a period of 10 to 30 minutes. They must ensure not to directly place the ice pack on the affected area to avoid ice burns. Next is compression, which is applied to reduce swelling while movements are being restricted, and lastly, the elevation. In this treatment, they raise the affected part to a comfortable, elevated position. This will lead the affected part into full rest.

RICE therapy may not take effect on other injuries. Some injuries require a more intensive type of therapy to cure the injury. Some require intake of painkillers or relievers to ease the pain of the injury. Others may apply mechanisms that will reduce the mobility of the affected part. Examples of these are sling, plasters, braces or splint.

There might also be a need to apply cortisone injections. These injections are used to reduce swelling and remove the pain associated with the injury, and lastly, for worse conditions, surgery. They will need to jump to this option if the injury is in severe condition. Surgeries arise if there is a need to repair torn out tissues or broken bones.

Play safely

It is still best for an athlete to do preventive measures than undergo treatments. No matter how intensive sports is or the training perhaps, safety is still the utmost priority of every athlete.

Maintaining good practices is the greatest option an athlete can have. This way, they will be able to perform their roles on the team they belong to continuously. The athletes should avoid injuries to prevent any hindrance to play their sports.

It only takes a good sports therapist to guide and provide favourable techniques to achieve the highest potential of the athlete. It is better to stay safe than regret it later. We can never tell how an injury can affect the overall condition of the athlete’s body, whether it’s temporary or worse, permanent.

Inability to return to the usual capacities of the athletes is the most heart-breaking part of being injured.