Sports Physiotherapy

Sport Physiotherapy in Melbourne

What is sport physiotherapy?

Sports Physiotherapy (Sports Physio) is the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of injuries, pain or abnormal movement patterns caused in any sport or physical activity.

Injuries from sporting and physical activities differ from the conventional day-to-day injuries. Athletes typically require a specific level performance. This requirement impose stress to the athletes’ muscle, joints and bones. Sport physiotherapy provides ways to help you maintain your active lifestyle by treating any muscle imbalances, tension and weaknesses that may lead to injuries.

What do sport physiotherapist do?

Sports Physiotherapists are involved in the prevention and management of injuries resulting from sport and exercise participation at all ages and at all levels of ability.

Sport physiotherapists provide evidence-based advice on safe participation in sport and exercise. Furthermore, they promote an active lifestyle to aid individuals in improving and maintaining their quality of life. Sports Physiotherapists also play a huge role in helping athletes of all ages and all levels of ability to enhance their performance.

Sports injuries can differ from everyday injuries. Athletes normally place a higher level of performance and demand upon their body, which stresses their muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and bones to their upper levels of capability.

capital physiotherapy sport prevention screening service image

Why does Capital Physiotherapy’s Sports Physiotherapy work?

Sporting injuries can be acute, chronic or just a niggle that refuses to disappear. At Capital Physiotherapy, our Sports Physiotherapists have the skills, expert knowledge and experience to get you back on the field as soon as physically possible. It’s what we do!

We have treated everyone from elite international athletes to local sports people. Contrary to their title, Sports Physiotherapists just don’t treat sports people, they treat everyone. They have an in-depth understanding of biomechanics and movement patterns, which are utilised to get you back to health.

The staff at Capital Physiotherapy believe in a rigorous assessment of your injury, followed by a detailed treatment plan. If you don’t know what the cause of the pain or problem is, how do you expect to fix it? The key to recovery is getting to the cause of the problem, looking for all the potential causes that you may be influencing your potential for a full and speedy recovery.

Sport Injury prevention

If you are serious about sports, it is almost inevitable that injuries will come at some point of your journey. Injuries are normal for any sport. It is almost unheard of if you are into a particular sport and you have been doing it for years that you never get any form of injuries from it. Be it contact sports or non-contact sports.

Do not get discouraged or scared. We see a lot of adults starting a new sport, falling in love with the sport but they encounter some injuries that take weeks/months to recover and after that incident, they decided to not further themselves to be better or just quit the sport altogether.

We can assess your movement pattern, flexibility, strength, power and all aspects of sports that are applicable to you. From there, we can identify areas to work on as pre-habilitation to prime your body specifically to the activities you do, reducing your chance of injury

Our Running Assessment

At Capital Physiotherapy, we understand how important your running routine is. Whether it’s part of your fitness regime, or it’s how you de-stress; it’s important nothing stops you from doing what you love. That’s why running assessments are usually incorporated as part of our consultations. If you are looking for a physio sport clinic or a sports near you, then our experienced physiotherapists will take a video of you running, and provide you with information that enables you to understand the relationship between your running technique and your injury.

Not injured? You can still come in for a running assessment. Our physiotherapists at Capital Physiotherapy are the expert in analyzing your running technique and set a program tailored to you to improve your performance. We will also give you some advice to prevent possible injuries and set a preventative program. This will ensure you can continue running, well into the future.

Treatment for injuries and rehabilitation

Whether you have an acute injury that puts you out of action or a chronic condition that has been lingering, sports physios can treat to improve pain and rehabilitate so to encourage return to sports at soon as possible. To do so, we assess and diagnose carefully so we can treat accordingly.

We also look at the cause of the problem as many injuries often happened secondary to other risks, for example, sporting technique, posture, muscle imbalance etc. Understanding of the root of the injuries means that we can treat from the fundamentals and avoid re-injury.

Performance enhancement

Once you have returned to sports/ exercises, we would like to keep you on the field and get better at it. Sports physio can profile you strength and weaknesses and other athletic qualities such as speed, agility and explosiveness. By doing so we can then work with you to enhance your sporting/ exercise performance.

Sports physio are trained to keep your new or old injuries in mind to tailor a program for you. The program will generally be strengthening and conditioning so you can maximise your potential and therefore your sporting experience.

At Capital Physiotherapy, what does our sport physiotherapist treat:

At Capital Physiotherapy, these are just some of the sports we commonly treat including but not limited to:

Aussie Rules Football (AFL)
Netball
Tennis
Soccer
Cricket
Golf

Swimming
Weightlifting/Gym activities
Calisthenics
Jogging/Running/ Athletics
Hockey players
Surfers

Gymnastics
Ballet dancers
Aerial dancers
Theatre performers
Pole dancers
Triathletes
Cyclists

FAQ About Sports Physiotherapy at Capital Physiotherapy

Injuries are very frustrating and as such, injury prevention is extremely important in allowing you to continue to perform. Our physiotherapists are able to provide you with a comprehensive assessment and find biomechanical issues in your movement patterns. Fixing these biomechanical issues will reduce the chance of you having injuries and time off from your training plan.

Contrary to popular beliefs, physiotherapists can not only help you with getting rid of your pain
(also known as pain management). Our physios can help you with:

Injury prevention. Our physiotherapists can observe specific movements to discover biomechanical imbalances and movement patterns that increase risk of injury in your body. We can then help design a personalized exercise program tailored to your specific needs.
Mobility and Flexibility. With regular training, our bodies will experience a build up of tightness and stiffness as well as micro damages. Ongoing regular physiotherapy can help improve your range of motion and reduce these sensations that you experience. This means a lower chance of you suffering from injuries and disrupting your training plans.
Faster recovery from injuries/surgeries. Physiotherapy can also provide you with a structured rehabilitation program specific for your needs. This means faster healing,
better outcomes and reduced long term complications.

The difference lies in who our physiotherapists see. General physiotherapy is indicated for the average population from young and old with a wide range of activity levels. Some common issues could be:

Post surgery rehab (after joint replacements)
Arthritis management
Back and neck pain

The goal is usually pain management, restoring flexibility and mobility as well as improving daily functioning (being able to walk, carry things or back to work). Sports physiotherapy is more focussed on injuries related to sports and physical activities.

Some common issues could be:

Strain and sprains (ACL tear, ankle sprains)
Tendinosis (from incorrect biomechanics or poor training loads)
Overuse injuries
Return to sports rehabilitation

The goal is usually to reduce the chance of injuries, enhancing performance as well as quicker return to playing sport.

With close to 30 years of physiotherapy experience, our physiotherapists can help you with a wide range of sports injuries affecting athletes of all levels. Common sports injuries we can help you manage include:

Muscle strains and tears (eg, hamstrings, calves, quads)
Ligament injuries (eg, ACL tears, ankle sprains)
Tendon injuries (eg, Achilles tendinopathy, tennis elbow, jumper’s knee)
Joint injuries (eg, shoulder dislocations, knee pain, hip impingements)
Overuse injuries (eg, shin splints, stress fractures, plantar fasciitis)
Post surgery rehab (eg ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair)

It is strongly recommended that you seek physiotherapy help as soon as you can. This allows your physiotherapist to provide you with a comprehensive assessment as quickly in your injury timeline as possible. A quick diagnosis means we can provide you with the correct treatment plan designed for you. This means a better chance at a quicker recovery and back to sports for you!

Our physiotherapist can definitely help you return to your sport faster! We suggest our clients come in as soon as they can after an injury. This gives us a chance to do a complete physical assessment of your injured body as well as giving you a tailored rehabilitation plan so that you can return to your training asap.

This will depend on the state of your injury. Early training when your body is unable to withstand the load, will result in further aggravation of your injury and even longer time off from sports. As such, it is highly recommended that you come in for an assessment as quickly as you can after an injury. Your physiotherapist will be able to provide you with the correct advice, tailored to your needs.

Our physiotherapy is suitable for all activity level as well as all ages! We are able to tailor our approach and programs to the specific needs of the individual. This is why we have a longer assessment time; this allows our physiotherapists to delve into your world and understand your requirements. Whether you are young or old, amateur or elite, you will benefit from the care our physiotherapists provide!