Sports injuries can come to you in many different forms and in many different ways! Whether it’s caused by overuse, neglect of an old injury or from trauma, a sporting injury really impacts how you go about your day to day life. We can all suffer from differing forms of sports injuries, whether you’re a professional athlete or not.
So, if you’re a pro who’s suffered in their sport or a casual exerciser who’s experiencing some major pain, you should turn to a physiotherapist. A professional physio can help you to totally rebuild your injury, making you stronger and less likely to experience injuries down the line. Here are some of the most common sporting injuries and how a physiotherapist can help you out:
Back Pain
Back pain finds us all at one time or another unfortunately, however, lots of physical activity can increase your risk of back injury and subsequently pain. Your physiotherapist will help you to stretch, exercise, mobilise and in extreme cases medicate your back. This will fix up your pain long term, so it’s well worth the investment.
Shin Splints
Shin splints will most commonly affect runners or those who engage in sports that have a lot of running involved. Shin splints will create a dull pain across your entire lower leg region, making it very hard for you to do any type of sport or exercise at all. This happens due to the misalignment of joints or good old muscle weakness, your physio will help you to restore muscle balance and your form when running. Their method will heal you up and protect you from any more nasty shin splints in the future.
Sprains
Your ligaments can become sprained easily by being stretched or torn during exercise. A sprain is treated with either a cast or sling (in severe cases) or with the rest, ice, compression and elevation technique used by your physiotherapist. The most common areas for spraining are joints such as your ankle or your wrist, as these are the areas where your ligaments are doing the most “work”.
Achilles Tendinitis
Achilles Tendinitis usually affects those who engage with sports that involve a lot of charging around, this can include hockey, basketball and rugby. Your Achilles is a huge tendon that lives at the back of the ankle, and if your calf muscle is overworked this area can become inflamed, meaning a lot of pain in the leg and ankle region. Your physio will help your Achilles to heal with rest, ice compression, elevation and anti-inflammatory medication. Strengthening exercises and stretching will also help to heal you up faster and prevent it coming back any time soon.
Tennis Elbow
This one happens from regular stress or overuse. Sports that can cause tennis elbow include, as the name might suggest, tennis, swimming and even other low impact sports like rock climbing. Impact injuries to the epicondyle, overextension or a forceful pull can all cause this injury to flare up. Symptoms such as pain on the outer elbow, pain whilst gripping or holding onto something and stiffness in the morning can indicate that you’re suffering from tennis elbow. A physio will help you to repair this with forearm strengthening exercises or low-level laser therapy, you’ll be hitting that tennis ball around the court again in no time!
A physiotherapist will work with you to repair immediate, pressing pain, as well as solving long term physical issues for you. Head to a sports physiotherapist in Sydney CBD to start your journey towards better health!
