Published on: 09-Mar-2022
Injuries are very common when you have an active lifestyle or compete in sports. Immediate medical action is required to prevent worsening and treatment of injuries so you can go back to your daily routine and join competitions.
Strengthening and injury prevention programs are necessary to educate yourself on proper and safe movements and techniques to avoid getting hurt or injured. The healing process may or may not be easy and may lessen your daily productivity and affect your sports career.
Enrolling under a certified athletic trainer and seeking advice from a sports physical therapist are good options because they have credible experience in effective fitness and training programs.
Consulting a specialist orthopaedic doctor is highly encouraged when you get injured while exercising, playing sports, or experiencing chronic pain due to a prior injury. This physician can help you achieve better bone and joint health and optimal performance.
What Is Sports Medicine?
Sports medicine deals with overall physical fitness, diagnosis, injury prevention approaches, and treatment management. This branch of medicine handles fitness enthusiasts, elite, and young athletes.
A specialised sports medicine doctor is a board-certified physician in orthopaedics, family medicine, physiatry, or paediatrician. He leads the sports medicine team together with a group of non-physician medical professionals.
Each team member plays a vital role in treating injuries, making individualised training, rehabilitation programs, and delivering appropriate medical care. They share their expertise to help you achieve a healthy body and a fast recovery. Here are the following:
- Professional Athletic Trainers – they have undergone intensive training in injury rehabilitation, strengthening, and endurance programs to promote bone and joint health.
- Physical Therapists – are licensed medical professionals that deal with the clinical rehabilitation of different types of diseases, mainly on musculoskeletal injuries. They re-educate your muscles for you to use them appropriately without getting hurt or injured.
- Accredited Practising Dietitian – helps with your daily nutritional needs. A weight loss or gain may be needed to achieve optimal physical performance.
Sports teams in different fields have their personal sports medicine team; in basketball, cycling, volleyball, golf, triathlon, gymnastics, and weightlifting. They’re also part of the planning team to help assess, diagnose, and rehabilitate their respective athletes.
What Are The Common Injuries Of Athletes?
Injuries may vary in the type of sport. Yet, the common ones are concussions, physical activity-induced asthma, ankle sprains, fractured bones, muscle tears, pulled ligaments, cartilage damage, or torn tendons. The healing process is directly proportional to the severity and extent of the damage.
Overuse syndrome is also commonly seen in athletes where a particular muscle or muscle group is often used in a repetitive motion; thus, it causes the muscles, ligaments, tendons, or nerves to become weak, torn, thin, and impinged.
Chronic pain due to a prior injury can also happen if an injury isn’t fully healed or may have caused compensatory damage to the surrounding structures. Pain can decrease productivity or worsen your condition.
Most injuries are acquired while practicing, in training, or the field. However, some injuries develop gradually. Proper diagnosis is greatly vital in determining the first step and options in treating the injury or condition.
How Sports Medicine Can Benefit Athletes
Sports medicine is beneficial to athletes. It comes with an array of medical care that strengthens bone and joint health, implement injury prevention measures, proper diagnosis, and treatment management associated with physical activities.
- Intensive and Exclusive Care to Athletes
Sports medicine doctors are board-certified physicians who took an additional course and further training specialising in motion injuries. They share expertise and work efficiently with the medical team to find the appropriate gold standard treatments for the patient.
They have adequate knowledge and training to determine the correlation of mechanism of injury, accurate diagnosis, proper treatment, and ensure the athlete can return to their sport right away.
- New Medical Treatment Options
A sports medicine doctor is competent in determining and seeking the best treatment option available, RCM services. A conservative technique is always considered for athletes where non-surgical treatments such as lasers, injections, stem-cell therapy, and physical therapy are utilised.
- Injury and Re-injury Preventive Measures
Muscles, bones, and joint health are the foundations for an athlete’s strong and reliable body. Each member of the sports medical team gives insights and shares expertise, led by the primary physician. All are well-endowed with knowledge and understanding of how the body structures work and what happens when it gets injured.
There’s an individualised program for every athlete; it comprises injury prognosis, healing period, modified movements, strengthening exercises, and other physical exams. Injury and re-injury preventive measures guarantee that the athletes perform well without fear and worry of getting harmed.
- Improved Athletic Performance
Athletes age, get injured, and their athletic performance may be compromised. Sports medicine helps an athlete maintain and monitor his overall physical health. Customised training programs, determining strengths and weaknesses, meal plans, and scheduled consultations are very helpful in improving both their body and career.
In Conclusion
This specialised branch of medicine gives intensive and exclusive care to athletes, explores new medical treatment options, implements injury and re-injury preventive measures, and guarantees improved athletic performance.
Sports medicine is highly proven beneficial and recommended to athletes of all sports. Each medical team member plays a vital role in ensuring proper diagnosis, the best treatment choice, and giving appropriate medical care.
By Michael Bravo, a certified athletic trainer. He used various social media platforms to impart knowledge and expertise about the importance of sports medicine to all athletes and fitness enthusiasts. He’s an expert in making individualized workout programs and conducts free webinars throughout the year.
