No athlete wants to sit on the sidelines–but if you’ve suffered an injury, that’s exactly what has to happen. Fortunately, there are things you can do to facilitate your recovery and rehabilitation, and physical therapy for sports injuries is one of the most significant.
Sports injuries can take all sorts of forms. Athletes are generally most concerned with acute injuries–sudden, major traumas resulting from a fall or collision. Bone fractures, ACL tears, or major sprains or strains are all examples. Many will require medical intervention and lengthy rehabilitation periods.
However, athletes also need to be careful about overuse injuries. These injuries develop over time due to repetitive movements or awkward postures. They often have names that reflect the athletes most at risk for them: tennis elbow, swimmer’s shoulder, or runner’s knee, for example.
Overuse injuries can cause pain and discomfort during activity, and many athletes will ignore these symptoms if they aren’t too severe. However, doing so can set you up for a more severe injury later on, so taking care of them is important!
Fortunately, physical therapy for sports injuries encompasses both acute and overuse injuries! The team at Alpine Physical Therapy and Sports Performance will develop a customized treatment program that suits your needs–and help you get back into the game as fast as possible.
What Can I Expect During Physical Therapy for Sports Injuries?
Our first step is performing a comprehensive evaluation so that we understand the exact nature of your injury. We’ll take a health history, discuss your symptoms, and learn more about what happened to cause the injury. We’ll also guide you through simple movement screens so we can evaluate your strength, range of motion, and more.
All this information allows us to develop a personalized treatment plan that will help promote healing and maximize your rehabilitation. Essentially, we want to create the ideal environment for your recovery.
Here’s a general overview of what you can expect–just remember that we tailor the specific to your injury:
- Mobility Work and Pain Management: We’ll begin with exercises to improve the range of motion in the affected area. We might also incorporate manual therapy techniques, which reduce pain, help with mobility work, and promote blood circulation.
- Strengthening Exercises: Next, we’ll start adding exercises to strengthen the muscles in the affected area. We start small and gradually build the intensity as you improve.
- Functional Training: Once you’ve restored your strength, we’ll help you “train” for movements you need to do in your everyday life, including sports-specific movements. Depending on the injury, this might also include balance and stability work.
- Return to Activity: Finally, we can tell you when you can safely return to your sport. You may need to modify some activities to start; we’ll guide you through the process!
- Injury Prevention: Finally, we’ll provide guidance on how to stop another injury before it happens.
Start Your Recovery Journey
The benefits of physical therapy for sports injuries are numerous. We aim to address the underlying cause of your injury so you can stay in the game once you get there, and we’ll help you restore strength and mobility so you don’t feel like you’re starting from scratch.
To learn more about how Alpine Physical Therapy and Sports Performance helps Arvada, CO athletes recover after sports injuries, request an appointment today!
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