Understanding musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy

Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy

Also known as orthopaedic physiotherapy, musculoskeletal physiotherapy focuses more on restoring function to the musculoskeletal system. It includes the muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, bones and nerves that might be affected by various activities or movements. Your physiotherapist performs a detailed assessment of the musculoskeletal system to identify various issues such as lower back pain or some sort of chronic pain that might be contributing to your symptoms. Musculoskeletal physiotherapy focuses on reducing pain, treating damages in soft tissue, increasing mobility and correcting the skeletal alignment.

Sports Physiotherapy

Sports Physiotherapy includes managing athletic injuries. Sports physiotherapists are involved in care and well-being of athletes, seasoned professionals and inactive children. Athletic injuries are managed by treating the injury using various techniques. These techniques encourage healing and include preventing practices such as assessing movements to identify or address any known previous injuries. It also includes progressive injury management and rehabilitation for quick return to sport and educating and sharing special knowledge to individual athletes, clubs or teams to provide assistance in preventing injury.

Sports rehabilitation can be a profession and trainers can help the athletes in training them as well as in handling musculoskeletal injuries and also in rehabilitation that arises from sport and physical activity. The major aim is to rehabilitate people back to functional and full fitness to meet the demands of a sport or activity. They can also continue to work with athletes through conditioning and strengthening which would help in preventing further injury. 

Physiotherapy is a science-based health care profession that focuses mainly on physical activity that can help people cope with the demands of day to day life. A physiotherapist examines, analyses, diagnoses and treats people with a range of health conditions. Physical treatments and exercises can be effective in improving and stabilising the condition of individuals to offer a better quality of life. Physiotherapists are well-trained and have in-depth knowledge, practical experience and skills along with proper understanding of values and behaviours.

Elite athletes seek the help of physiotherapists regularly. A good physiotherapist can help you in recovering from training, prevent injuries and help in boosting performance. They recommend strengthening exercise and stretching, mobility aids, massage etc. to speed up the healing process.

Sports physiotherapists conduct tests that can help in assessing the fitness level and weak spots of an athlete. They prescribe exercises for people with muscle imbalances, back pain, muscle splits or tendonitis. This can help in improving the overall performance and in reducing the risk of an injury. Physiotherapy can offer various benefits and it has been around for many decades. Most people are not aware of the treatment that is available in various forms such as paediatric, geriatric or other similar conditions. 

Each condition needs to be addressed separately and involves different treatment methods. But all types of physiotherapy involve exercise. Based on your needs, the therapist might also recommend massages, joint mobilisation, traction, massage, taping and so on. The end goal is to improve the health and quality of life of individuals. Physiotherapy also diagnoses and treats injuries. With physiotherapy, people can get better because they are not only treated by also given special advice regarding prevention of future injuries.