Sports Therapy Treatment Techniques
If you are a seasoned or experienced sportsperson, you may know exactly what sports therapy refers to and what it includes. However, those of you who are new to participating in rigorous sports may not know what sports therapy is or its importance.
What Is Sports Therapy?
Sports therapy is a type of therapy that can be extremely important for athletes or people who are rigorously active. Sports therapy is a good way to learn the best ways to prevent avoidable injuries. Some other things sports therapy helps with include:
- Evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of an injury
- Programs/plans for performance enhancement
- Rehabilitation after an injury
Sports Therapy Techniques
Your physical health is a top priority in sports therapy. To keep you in the best shape possible and ensure you are being safe, sports therapy uses a few different techniques.
Manual Therapy
Manual therapy is a type of physical therapy. However, manual therapy consists of your sports therapist using solely their hands. Manual therapy will consist of putting pressure on certain joints and tissues through massages or manual manipulation.
Manual therapy can help with things like reducing pain, slowing inflammation, improving flexibility, and improving range of motion. Manual therapy is a very common form of sports therapy. If you are active, you will most likely use this at some point.
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, manual therapy may be recommended:
- Muscle strain or spasm
- Joint pain
- Back pain
- Mobility issues
- Carpal tunnel
- Soft tissue injury
Your sports therapist will help you determine if this is the right treatment plan.
Heat Therapy
Using heat is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Heat should be used for any injury that is chronic or reoccurring. This is effective because it increases blood circulation in the area being heated. It is important not to overuse heat therapy or fall asleep with a heating pad or wrap on. This can be very dangerous.
Heat can help well with things like back pain, stiff muscles, sore muscles, and arthritis. If heat therapy doesn't sound right for you, you can try ice therapy.
Ice Therapy
If you just recently injured yourself, you should put ice on it to help reduce inflammation. Ice therapy slows down the blood flow in the area the ice is applied which can help reduce swelling. The ice can also slow nerve activity in the treated area which will help reduce pain.
Contact a local sports therapy service to learn more.
