While you may commonly associate the phrase 'no pain, no gain' with being physically active, this isn't necessarily true when it comes to participating in sports and staying active. The team of physiotherapists at our clinic serving Nepean and Ottawa are here to explain how we provide sports physiotherapy to our clients.
Working out or participating in sports, whether that be running, lifting weights, playing hockey or curling, comes with some risk of injury. The repeated and strenuous movements involved in sports means that by participating in them, you are more likely to sustain an acute or progressive injury.
When it comes to mitigating these injuries, there are many strategies available to you. In order to give yourself the best chance at avoiding pain, discomfort and setbacks in your performance, it's recommended that you consult with a sports physiotherapist like the members of our team at Nepean Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Centre.
The following are examples of some of the pieces of advice you will likely receive if you work with our sports physical therapy team to help manage pain, recover from injuries and maintain your well-being.
Warm-up and cool-down
Every workout that you do should start and end with dedicated periods of light exercise to warm up and cool down.
Warm-ups gradually increase your heart rate and loosens your muscles and joints before you push yourself, easing your body into activity and giving it time to adjust to strenuous activity. Cool-downs slowly bring your heart back to its normal rate and gives your muscles time to adjust to no longer performing strenuous activity.
Warm-ups and cool-downs that our sports physiotherapists may recommend include light jogging, jumping rope, riding an exercise bike and stretching.
Ease into it
Any time that you pick a sport or workout routine back up, make sure you start slowly and don't push yourself too hard. Instead of leaping into action and pushing yourself to your limit immediately, gradually build the intensity and duration of your activity. Many of the acute injuries that people experience in sports result from pushing themselves too hard, too fast.
As your fitness increases, so too will your ability to challenge yourself. This applies both to starting to be active for the first time, and returning to a workout routine or sport after recovering from an injury. If you push yourself to the level that you are used to before your injury, you will likely reinjure yourself.
Cross-train.
Just as you shouldn't push yourself too hard, make sure you don't overwork specific muscles of yours by doing and single activity for too long. The frequent repetition of the same muscle movements without rest periods can lead to injuries like tendinitis that may be caused by consistent overuse.
To avoid this, vary the muscle groups your workouts engage every day. The specifics will always vary based on the individual, so you should ask your physiotherapist what kind of cross-training and workout planning will work best for you.
Know your trouble spots.
When considering what workout to do, always keep in mind areas of your body which you are problem areas. This can include muscles you have injured and still need time to rest, or areas that are weak and need strengthening.
While you might be able to determine what body part hurts or feels weaker than others, you should always ask your physiotherapist about targeting workouts to the parts of your body that are giving your trouble. A physiotherapist will be able to help identify not only your issues, but the ideal exercises to help you strengthen both weakened parts of your body, but also the areas that support them to help alleviate pain and prevent injury.
Sports Physiotherapy in Nepean and Ottawa
At Nepean Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Centre, our team of physiotherapists are able to help to alleviate the pain and speed the healing of a sports injury in addition to strengthening your body and improving your exercise form to help prevent future incidents and injuries.
If you have suffered from an acute workout injury, the first step will always be to control any swelling pain, often including icing, resting, compression and elevation of the injury. The dissipation of the pain, however, doesn't mean that your injury is healed.
If your injury is not properly retrained and rehabilitated, you will be at risk of your injury reoccurring or leading to a new one altogether. Our Nepean sports physiotherapists are able to provide you with individualized treatment programs which will help your injury to heal and you to safely regain your strength and mobility.
Some of the treatments we offer include:
- Stabilization with tape or bracing
- Manual Therapy for joint restrictions or stiffness
- Acupuncture for the management of pain and swelling
- Active exercises to restore flexibility, strength, endurance and balance
- Ultrasound and other electrotherapy agents for the management of acute injuries
Are you suffering from a painful condition or injury?
We can help you recover bodily function and reduce pain.
Welcome to the Nepean Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Centre blog, where we provide lots of helpful tips, news, information and advice about physiotherapy and massage treatments, as well as general health and wellness, in Nepean and Ottawa.