Rehab and Recovery

The Effects of Physical Therapy on Athletes

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Physical therapy has many positive effects on athletes, ranging from helping players with injuries and overall performance. It is very common for athletes to get hurt while doing a sport because they push their bodies during practices and games to improve skill. Physical therapy can help athletes recover from injuries like sprains and torn muscles so they can get back to playing the sports they love. Physical therapists make exercise plans that help with the certain injury you are trying to recover from. Depending on what your injury is, the exercise plan could help you regain strength, flexibility and movement. The certain exercises the physical therapist chooses for you also can help reduce pain and swelling, making sure the injury heals the right way.

The first step of physical therapy is rehab which can come in many different forms. The main forms of rehab are needling and cupping, both with similar benefits, but targeting different things. Cupping gives broader tension relief, while needling gives more specific release for smaller areas of the muscle. Cupping uses suction cups to create a pulling sensation, this pulling sensation acts like a vacuum, lifting the skin and tissue away from the body to create negative pressure and decompress the muscle. Cupping boosts blood flow and allows for quicker recovery. For needling, physical therapists insert thin dry needles into a knot in the muscle causing a twitch, which means that it is working. The twitch is actually a muscle contraction which helps to release tension and increase blood flow, also signaling the body that it needs healing cells in that muscle area. Both needling and cupping are effective ways to recover faster. Other forms of rehab include soft-tissue massages and other hands-on movements. Tools such as massage guns and scrapers are used to release tension, calm the muscles and break down scar tissue. While there are many other forms of rehab, these are just a few.

The next step of physical therapy is recovery. Recovery can mean many things, but mainly it includes exercises that help strengthen the injured body part. These exercises are used to regain flexibility, function, balance and endurance. They also help athletes relearn how to exercise the correct way, this is so they do not injure themselves again and can perform the motion without pain. Strength training can involve the use of a variety of many different items including bands, bodyweight, machines or weights.

The last step of physical therapy is the part that is done at home. Many physical therapists send home a list of exercises that can be done with household objects or with only bodyweight. These exercises are to be done regularly, so the athlete can regain muscle memory of doing these exercises the correct way. The use of heating pads and icing is also important for keeping an athlete well recovered. Heating pads are used more for muscle stiffness and soreness, whereas icing is used for smaller injuries and inflammation. Both are easy to do at home, inexpensive and offer many benefits for recovering athletes.

Without physical therapy, athletes could risk getting hurt again or even making the injury worse by coming back too early. Depending on what sport or activity you do, physical therapists can prevent an issue before it even becomes a problem, they look for things like bad form, weak muscles or bad posture. When these problems are worked with, athletes are a lot less likely to get injured in the future. This is very important because athletes need to stay healthy in order for them to practice and play well.