Sports Injuries

What makes you get out there and train rain or shine? Is it knowing that you have to be better than you were before? Or is it the quest for victory? Maybe you just have goals that you must accomplish, no matter what.

Whatever your motivation, if you train, play and compete, you can guarantee that at some point you will suffer an injury. You do not even have to be doing anything wrong. Sometimes accidents just happen. Our physical therapy team understands how important it is that you get back on your feet as soon as possible. We are here to help by providing the physical therapy you need to recover from sports injuries. Please contact us now to learn more.

What Makes a Sports Injury?

Sports injuries is a broad term that covers all the injuries you can get while playing sports, working out or otherwise pushing yourself physically. You don’t have to be a professional athlete to suffer from a sports injury, either. Anyone, from pros to high school players to weekend warriors can wind up with sports injuries.

When you push your body to perform you can get hurt. It is a part of the process and something that you most likely accept—even if you don’t like it and want to avoid it as much as possible. When you push yourself too hard or use bad form while exercising you are definitely more prone to developing an injury. That is why those that are just getting started in a sport tend to get injured more. The less training and conditioning you have had the more prone you are to injury.

Of course, even the best athletes in the world still get injured. Sometimes it happens while competing, but it can also happen while training or in everyday life. Even athletes slip on ice, roll ankles on uneven surfaces and twist the wrong way from time to time.

They key to dealing with sports injuries is to get targeted treatment as soon as possible. The kind of treatment you need will depend on a variety of factors, like how severe the injury is, current health issues you are dealing with and the type of injury you sustained. A physical therapist is well-qualified to examine your injury, weight the factors involved and administer treatment that is most likely to help you recover quickly so you can get back in the game.

What Kinds of Sports Injuries do Physical Therapists Treat?

Physical therapists are trained to treat just about every type of sports injuries out there. Of course, some injuries are more common than others. These include:

• Injuries to the shoulder, such as a dislocated shoulder
• Lower back pain including sciatica
• Injuries to the knee, such as torn ligaments and hyperextension
• Injuries to the elbow including tennis elbow and golf elbow

The most common sports injuries treated by physical therapists involve the knee. There are so many things that can go wrong with the knee, and the joint is put under considerable stress in many different types of sport.

What do Physical Therapists do to Treat Sports Injuries?

The basics of physical therapy treatment are pretty easy to understand. The process begins with a careful examination of your injury and your body overall. Once the physical therapist has a good overall understanding of what is going on, he or she will research which exercises and tools are most likely to help you recover. There are countless exercises available, many of them very specific, that the physical therapist can draw from to treat sports injuries.

The physical therapist will explain the treatment plan and get your consent to begin. Then he or she will guide you through exercises to help reduce pain and inflammation, improve range of motion and increase strength. It may take multiple treatments to recover, but as long as you stick to it you should get tangible results for your efforts.

Have you sustained a sports injury? If so, please call our office in Bedford, NH, around the greater Manchester area, to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist. Let us help you get your game back.