Many are surprised that sports performance physio Adelaide also assesses and treats structural issues like joint and ligament damage, typically due to biomechanical difficulties such as poor posture or gait patterns.
In the early 90s, greater emphasis was placed on research, clinical justification, manual techniques and injury prevention.
Strengthening
Just as regular dental visits will keep your teeth in optimal health, regular physiotherapy sessions can prevent injuries in your body. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure for sports physical therapy.
Regular physiotherapy treatments can significantly improve your range of motion and flexibility, increase strength, lower the risk of injury, and optimise performance. Your physiotherapist will assess any weaknesses and design a tailored exercise programme to strengthen weak muscles.
By strengthening your muscles properly, sports performance physio Adelaide will help ensure they work as they should and reduce your risk of injury. For instance, if your upper back and neck muscles are weak enough to support your weight during a game, this could result in shoulder or back injuries – but a physiotherapist can show you how to strengthen them so you can play without injury while simultaneously decreasing pain during and post-game play.
Flexibility
Flexibility exercises strengthen muscles, joints and soft tissues to move freely through their full range of motion, increasing muscle flexibility and improving aerobic fitness training, muscular strength and endurance, and sports performance.
Dynamic flexibility exercises should be part of any training program because they are more effective than static stretches. Static stretching may cause muscles to switch off their elasticity, decreasing flexibility.
Balance
Balance training is an integral component of sports performance physio, as it increases stability, agility, and coordination while helping prevent falls (the second leading cause of unintentional injury worldwide). A quick way to test balance is by asking clients to stand on one leg for 10 seconds as an example of testing balance.
Balance training should consider your clients’ sports or training demands when designing an adequate strength and conditioning program. For instance, clients in an aggressive sport like basketball may benefit from performing dynamic balance exercises during warm-ups or skill drills before transitioning into static balance exercises during main sessions.
Injury Prevention
Athletic injuries can be avoided through proper stretching and exercise techniques. Physical therapists are equipped to create tailored injury prevention plans suited to each athlete, considering their needs, goals, training requirements, sport-specific demands, and sports demands. Such programs could include dynamic and static stretching techniques, strengthening exercises, mobility drills and movement pattern retraining drills – among others.
Exercise is intended to increase muscle-tendon flexibility, decrease joint load, and boost performance overall. Many sports performance physio Adelaide injuries occur from awkward body movements due to inadequate motor control; thus, enhancing body mechanics and motor control can prevent unnecessary injuries by keeping you from moving awkwardly.
If you’re in pain or have a condition that limits your movement, physical therapy might be the answer for you. Physiotherapy is more conservative than surgery, and, in some cases, it improves the situation enough that you won’t need surgery at all. This type of treatment uses techniques such as exercises, massages and treatments based on physical stimuli (e.g. heat, cold or electrical currents).
Physiotherapy can also help with balance and movement problems like vertigo. It helps you to regain strength in weak muscles, increase mobility and flexibility in stiff joints and reduce pain. It can even be used to treat respiratory conditions such as obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary fibrosis and heart attacks.
A physiotherapist can create a personalised exercise plan to help you retrain your muscles, strengthen them and rebalance your body. You can do these exercises at home or the clinic. They can also train you in techniques such as the Active Release Technique, which combines shortening and lengthening the muscles while applying pressure to them. It breaks up scar tissue and reduces muscle tightness.