4 Benefits Of Seeing A Physiotherapist After A Gym Injury

Going to the gym can be therapeutic. You lift weights, do your routines, and get advice from your trainer or gym instructor. This routine can make you feel refreshed. Nothing beats a good run on the treadmill or a satisfying deadlift after a stressful day, after all. While you’re loaded with endorphins, sometimes unfortunate things can happen like a gym injury. You could sprain your ankle on leg day or have a sudden muscle spasm caused by bad form. In times like these, it’s a common response to rest for a while and cool down.

However, there may be an underlying issue if the sprain or injury is a common occurrence. Additionally, there could be a bigger issue if it seems serious enough that rest doesn’t make it better. In these cases, the issue likely needs the attention of a proper fitness or health professional. This fitness or health professional may be a personal trainer who can offer advice. Or for more serious issues this could be a physiotherapist. Sometimes personal trainers can even have a physiotherapy background. If not, your trainer also might have a recommendation on which physiotherapist to see. They can then work with your physiotherapist to create an exercise program that helps you recover and stay fit.

Whether the injury is short- or long-term, here are four benefits of seeing a physiotherapist after a gym injury.

Understanding the Nature of Injuries

Physiotherapists are health professionals who have spent years studying the body and its propensity for physical injuries. There could be several factors that lead to your simple sprain. These health professionals are the go-to people who can shed some light on the cause. They can then help you remedy the situation.

Contrary to popular belief, anyone can visit a physiotherapist even if they don’t have any injuries. This is because treatment is not the only service physiotherapists can give. They also offer help with prevention, such as tips on proper posture, form, and so on.

In addition, they also provide services necessary for chronic or long-term injuries. This is important, as some injuries may affect how people can do simple tasks. For example, back pain could hamper someone’s capacity to stoop down or lift things. This could impact their ability to do most tasks involved in daily life. And in some cases, what seems like simple back pain could already be a sign of a more serious issue. If you’re suffering from that, you can read a full article on the subject here.

Different Rehabilitation Practices

After sustaining an injury, it’s important to give your body the time it needs to heal. It will take time for it to get back to its previous healthy state. But as easy as it may sound, healing may sometimes require more than simply resting or restorative activity.

That’s where the rehabilitation process of physiotherapy comes in. It includes simple techniques such as the RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) method. It also encompasses more complex interventions like proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF).

First, a physiotherapist will assess the nature of your injury, as well as its severity. Then, they can provide you with recommendations that can help your body heal safely. Injuries don’t only affect the outside but also the inside of the body. Thus, even after your injury has healed, it’s important to get help from a professional who can prevent further damage.

Re-Injury Prevention

As with most health conditions, it’s easier to prevent something when you know what caused it in the first place. It’s like how people avoid consuming specific allergens they know will trigger their allergies. One of the bases of prevention is understanding how and why the allergy occurs.

In the same vein, injuries can be caused by different factors. Being familiar with them can help you navigate around these factors safely. Since physiotherapists know the nature of most injuries, they also know how to keep you from getting them again.

For instance, you might assume bad form caused a sprained ankle. However, you could find out that you have a nearly torn ligament that needs more care. Simply practicing proper form will not fix this. In cases like this, form improvements may help in the long run, but that doesn’t help the current pain.

Ability to Educate And Empower You

There are certain cases wherein people who’ve sustained chronic or severe injuries become traumatized. Subsequently, they are afraid of going back to the gym or doing intense workouts. Injuries can be extremely painful. The time and financial resources spent on healing can also pile up. These factors make the risk of repeating the injury seem to be too much. If you’re in a similar situation, a physiotherapist can help you process these feelings through education.

It’s normal to feel anxious when you go back to the gym after sustaining an injury. This is especially true if the injury was particularly serious. You can help lessen the anxiety by being informed about the dos and don’ts regarding your injury. You may not be aware of these until talking to a physiotherapist.

Moreover, being educated by your physiotherapist can help you communicate the nature of your injury to your personal trainer or gym instructor. This can allow your trainer to draft a program that’s tailored to what your body can handle.

Final Thoughts

Even if a gym injury seems mild, if it has occurred several times already, you should talk to a fitness or health professional. Often the right person in a physiotherapist. If an existing injury doesn’t seem to be healing as fast as you expect, you should also see a physiotherapist. This way, you can get to the root of the injury and learn what can be done to heal it. A physiotherapist can also help if you’ve recovered from an injury but you’re worried it may happen again. They can help you learn how to prevent it.