If you are not an athlete or are close to who you are, you may not all be familiar with sports physiotherapy. After all, this is not a profession with which most people have a lot of experience. This article will provide an overview of its very interesting and large-scale career field, and we will cover some of the many things that physical therapists do.
Collins English Dictionary (Second Edition) defines physiotherapy as “treating a disease or injury by physical means, such as massage or exercise, not drugs [physio- (prefix) physical + therapy] Thus, sports physiotherapy refers to the treatment of sports injuries by physical means.
This is a good working definition, but it really is only scratching the surface of what sports physiotherapy is really all about. It is true that athletes will consult with physical therapists about injuries and that they can receive treatment as directed by the physiotherapist as part of their rehabilitation.
However, the reuse of sports injuries does not reflect the whole practice. Many in their field have focused their interests on developing equipment to protect injured athletes from aggravating circumstances and creating equipment designed to really improve the rehabilitation process. Sports physiotherapists are not just laying out massage for uncomfortable athletes in the locker room, they are often at the forefront of medical advancement.
Work on the development of equipment designed to assist victims in their recovery is not the only non-therapeutic role played by sports physiotherapy professionals. Some practitioners focus on building equipment and protective equipment designed to prevent injuries in the first place. You can find physiotherapists involved in the development and testing of new helmets, protective gears and braces designed to protect athletes from injury.
As you can tell, the field is really wider than the strict definition of the dictionary suggested. While the treatment of injuries remains in the center of sports physiotherapy, the subject area also includes research and development of equipment used in the rehabilitation of injuries, and equipment designed to reduce injuries in the first place. This completes the physiotherapy circle, forcing physiotherapists to participate in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of sports problems.
This is a field of study and a profession worthy of serious consideration for those who have a strong academic interest in biology and related sciences. Sports physiotherapists are in great demand as more and more people go in for athletics and regularly perform their lives. When the aging children's Boomer population remains more active than previous groups of older people, the likelihood of continued high demand for subject matter experts should remain fairly high for some time. Sports physiotherapy is a wise voluntary choice for those who are very interested in sports and / or medicine.
