Sports physiotherapy plays an important role in the management of sports-related pain and sports injuries, as well as assisting athletes to reach their peak performance and reduce the risk of career-impacting injuries. But that’s not all sports physio’s do. Sport physiotherapists have a particular interest in movement and exercise, their skills useful for anyone who moves or exercises!
Physio for Acute Sports Injuries
Acute sports injuries occur in relation to some form of trauma, such as an ankle sprain, should dislocation or muscle strain. Seeing a sport physio early can really help to get swelling under control and provide you with the best advice around how to best protect the area which keeping up conditioning in other ways, wherever possible.
Physio for Overuse Injuries or Pain
Other times, pain related to sport or activity may come on related to repetitive, excessive load on bone, joints, tendons, muscles or nerves. This pain may come on quickly with a seemingly minor event, for example just running a little faster or further, but this might have been the final straw on the background on a period of chronic overload. More commonly, overuse pain come on gradually over time, slowly worsening as the athlete tries to keep pushing forward with a training load to which their body has not been able to adapt. It may settle with some rest but then return with increasing training intensity again.
These types of injuries or persistent/recurrent pain issues require a close examination of both the athlete and their chronic and acute training history. Sometimes the problem is all in the training loads, but often there are contributions related to the athlete’s muscle strength or endurance, kinematics (movement patterning), mobility (too much or too little), or structure (e.g., bony shape).
A sports physiotherapist will work with you to help determine the various factors involved in your problem and develop a tailored plan of advice and exercise to return you to training and performance as quickly but safely as possible. If time out of sport is required, it is often a great time to work on other weaknesses, so you can come back even stronger.
Performing athletes such as dancers, gymnasts and circus performers might like to see one of our Dance physiotherapists, Jo, Rhianna and Dave.
Cyclists might like to see our cycling physio, Eric Huang for cycling related conditions or for a bike fit.
Eric, Tyler and Kevin can provide a running assessment for you, using state-of-the-art technology.
Eric, Tyler and Kevin can also assist you with any strength and conditioning/ gym needs, whether that might be recovering from a lifting injury, learning to lift safely when starting out at the gym or when returning to the gym after injury, or building a performance program.
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