While you may associate the phrase "no pain, no gain" with living a healthy, active lifestyle, this doesn't have to be true. Our team of physical therapists are here to provide information about how we can help our Stittsville and Ottawa patients to avoid unnecessary pain through sports physiotherapy.
Whether working out or participating in sports, playing hockey, lifting weights or even curling, there is some risk of injury. The strenuous and repeated movements involved in sports means that by participating in sports, you are more likely to sustain progressive eor scute injuries.
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 Motion Works Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Centre.
The following are a few examples of the advice you will likely receive if you with our sports physiotherapy team in order to manage injuries, recover from pain and maintain your well-being.
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 personal fitness increases, so too will your ability to challenge yourself. This both applies to starting activities for the first time as well as returning to a workout routine or sport after you have recovered from an injury. If you push yourself to the level that you are used to before your injury, there's a good chance that you will reinjure yourself.
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.
When warming up, you gradually increase your heart rate and loosen up your muscles to help them ease into more intense activity and strenuous exercise.
When cooling down, you slowly bring your heart rate back to its normal pace and give your muscles time to adjust ot no longer being engaged in exercise in the same way.
Warm-ups and cool-downs that our sports physiotherapists may recommend include light jogging, jumping rope, riding an exercise bike and stretching.
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.
Cross-train.
Just like you shouldn't push yourself too hard when starting up an exercise regime, you also need to ensure that you don't overwork specific muscles by doing a single activity for too long. The repetition of the same muscle movements every day without rest can lead to injuries that may be caused by slight but 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.
Sports Physiotherapy in Stittsville and Ottawa
At Motion Works Physiotherapy & Sports Injury 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 a workout injury as a result of an accident or another immediate cause (these are called acute injuries), the first step will be to control swelling, including icing, compressive and resting the injured area. Just because swelling and pain have gone away doesn't mean the injury is healed though.
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:
- Active exercises to restore flexibility, strength, endurance and balance
- Acupuncture for the management of pain and swelling
- Manual Therapy for joint restrictions or stiffness
- Ultrasound and other electrotherapy agents for the management of acute injuries
- Stabilization with tape or bracing