Physical Therapy Essential to Sports Injury Recovery
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Sports injuries happen to the best of us. For proof of that, one need look no further than professional sports leagues, where injuries have derailed seasons, careers, and become as much a part of the game as bats, balls, cleats, and spikes.
As proof that injuries are a big part of athletics, consider the case of the 2008 New York Yankees. Boasting the highest payroll ($209 million) in the history of Major League Baseball, they could also likely claim the dubious distinction of paying the most money to injured players. Less than two months into the season, the Yankees had already seen the game's highest paid player, Alex Rodriguez (making $28 million in 2008) spend two weeks on the disabled list, while catcher Jorge Posada (earning $13.1 million in 2008), spent significantly more time on the sidelines unable to perform. What's more, pitcher Carl Pavano, making $11 million in 2008, was not expected to throw a single pitch for the team during the 2008 season.
What professional sports injuries illustrate is that no one, not even the best and brightest athletes in the world, is immune to injury. But avoiding injury isn't necessarily as hard as it seems. Knowing what sports injuries are and how to react to them should one occur is a big part of recovering and avoiding further injury in the future.
What Are Sports Injuries?
You don't have to be a professional or even amateur athlete to suffer a sports injury. In fact, many times those most susceptible to sports injury are people who simply don't know what they are and how they're caused. For the sake of brevity, sports injuries in this article will be defined as injuries to the musculoskeletal system, including muscles, bones, and tissues such as cartilage. The most common sports injuries include:
* Sprains: A sprain occurs when the connective tissue that joins the end of one bone with another is stretched or torn. Those connective tissues are known as ligaments. Sprains are caused by trauma such as a fall or blow to the body that knocks a joint out of position. Ankles, knees and wrists are most vulnerable to sprains.
* Strains: A strain occurs when a muscle or tendon is pulled, torn or twisted. Strains are noncontact injuries, such as those that occur from overstretching. A common example of a strain is a muscle spasm.
* Knee injuries: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the knee is the most commonly injured joint. Orthopedic surgeons see more than 5.5 million people annually for knee injuries, which can include runner's knee (pain or tenderness close to the knee cap at the front side of the knee), tendinitis and iliotibial band syndrome (pain on the outer side of the knee). Severe knee injuries often include bone bruises or damage to the cartilage or ligaments.
* Shin splints: Shin splints occur when there is pain along the large bone in the front of the lower leg, known as the tibia or shin bone. Shin splints most commonly occur in runners, especially those who are just starting a running program.
How Are Sports Injuries Treated?
For severe sports injuries that require a doctor's care and supervision, athletes will need to discuss a plan of rehabilitation. For less severe injuries that don't require surgery, physical therapy might be enough. Physical therapists are trained health care professionals who are skilled in developing rehabilitation programs to facilitate your recovery. These programs can range from relatively easy to highly difficult. While this isn't the case with all sports injuries, many require a two-pronged approach to physical therapy.
* Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation is often rooted in a gradual exercise program that is designed to return the injured body part back to normal. Each injury is different, but an early part of most rehabilitation will focus on getting the injured body part moving as soon as possible. This is meant to speed up the healing process. This movement does not involve aggressively moving the injured part. Instead, it's more likely going to be range-of-motion exercises where you then move to stretching and strengthening the injured part.
These beginning stages are often dull, but discipline is required. Physical therapists aim for you to progress through rehabilitation, and that's not going to be done overnight. Your program is likely to involve exercises for flexibility, endurance and strength, none of which are completely recovered in a moment's time. Patience and perseverance will be essential factors as to how successful your rehabilitation goes, and those are entirely up to you.
* Rest: The other important element of physical therapy is rest. You'll need a proper balance between rest and rehabilitation, and adhering to the rest portion of your physical therapy is just as important as sticking to the rehabilitation schedule.
To learn more about sports injuries and physical therapy, visit the American Physical Therapy Association Web site at www.apta.org.