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Physiotherapy 4 SportsWhat is Physiotherapy?Physiotherapy is the treatment and prevention of injury and disease by natural means. Its aim is to alleviate pain, maximise healing, and restore the body to its natural balanced state through provision of exercises, soft tissue release and educational advice. An injury assesment is a good place to start with any new injury or re-injury. Alternatively, if there is no injury and if you are purely looking to improve efficiency and quality of movement a biomechanical assessment can be carried out.
Injury AssessmentWhen an injury is healing, the aim is to restore original function to the affected part of the body. Receiving instructions from a qualified physiotherapist are important to ensure that the correct muscle groups are trained with the appropriate movements. Analysing the causes and consequences of the injury enables a programme to be drawn up for the treatment of muscles, joints, and ligaments as well as porviding advice on preventing re-ccurances. The treatment methods used involve increasing flexibility, strength, and coordination together with encouragement and use of modalities to reduce pain and discomfort. Injury Prevention before it happensWhen muscles become tight and shortened, joints they surround become susceptible to harm. If a muscle does not move freely the joint may move without it causing a dislocation or a torn ligament, tendon or muscle. Chronic shortening of muscles through excessive running will also raise the risk of injury as these muscles compress joints causing hip pains, sciatica, torn cartilage or rotation at the knee. It is therefore vital that one gains the understanding of how to take care of their body correctly in order to prevent further injuries occurring in the future. Biomechanical AssessmentBiomechanics is simply the term for applying mechanical laws to living things. A biomechanical assessment can diagnose any conditions related to faulty biomechanics, for example over-pronated feet, or tight muscles or ligaments. These can inhibit proper body function and give rise to a whole host of further musculoskeletal problems e.g. ankle and foot pain (including achilles tendon issues) and planta facsitis and lower back pain. If you Imagine the pelvis as the 'carriage' of the body; the upper body is the 'passenger 'and the legs the 'locomotor unit'. If the passenger is not sitting properly on the carriage the locomotor unit cannot carry the upper body centre of mass (centre of gravity) efficiently and the legs will function asymmetrically during gait (walking and running) Assessments will take from 1 to 2 hours depending on biomechanical complexity. The principles of biomechanics are based around walking, running and sports specific movements. This will also include detailed analysis of posture, balance, core stability, breathing, and evidence based strength and flexibility tests. Some of the injuries that can occur if your biomechanics are not working well include:
Nancy works in conjunction with medical physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, personal trainers and biomechanical specialists. Therefore, if physiotherapy treatment could be enhanced by referring to another specialty, this will always be the case. Please contact Nancy for a no obligation consultation and start the journey towards health and well-being. Important |
