Sports Therapy
What is Sports Therapy?
Sports Therapy is a form of therapy, within healthcare, that focuses on preventing injuries and rehabilitating patients back to their lifestyle, occupation or sporting goals, irrespective of ability and age.
A Graduate Sports Therapist (accredited by the Society of Sports Therapists) has been trained to hold the skills and knowledge to:
- Assess, treat and rehabilitate conditions that affect the musculoskeletal system, including sporting injuries or postural related conditions
- Help you optimise your sporting performance by focusing on injury prevention and prehabilitation.
- Assist you in maintaining and maximising your daily activities
- Provide education on movement patterns, coping with musculoskeletal conditions and maximising performance
Sports therapy isn’t exclusive to sports people and everyone can benefit from this treatment. Whether your goal is to lift your grandchildren, do your gardening pain free or increase your PB on a 5km run, Sports Therapy can benefit you in achieving your goals.
I have been working with Louise to help me with a nasty knee injury for the last few months and I have received a brilliant service.
I am making really great progress and it is all down to Louise...she has been patient and sensitive to my needs and has provided me the best possible advice and treatment and I am so grateful for all her hard work.
I could not recommend Louise enough and would always pass on her details to anyone who I think could benefit from her services...fantastic!
Mark Moffat
What’s the difference between Sports Therapy and Sports Osteopathy?
Sports therapy does include massage as part of the treatment to stimulate the muscles to relax but then uses movement exercises as a major part of the treatment plan. These exercises are designed to challenge the movement patterns of the body and remove ‘cheat’ movements we may have developed, this then allows the full body is able to tolerate load without pain. We then focus on increasing the load the body can tolerate so we are building strength, with the
aim that the pain or injury will not return.
Do not hesitate to give us a call on 07792 580402 or 0118 969 6811 if unsure which treatment approach to go for or to discuss your particular sporting injury or goal.
What should I expect from my appointment?
- Your initial appointment will be focused on discussing your pain or injury via a case history, we will follow with a hands-on full body assessment, to further understand the true cause of the injury
- From your initial appointment you will have a clear understanding of what has caused the injury, the steps we need to take to get you to your goal and the recommended number of sessions it will take to get you there
- Your first few sessions will look at restoring movement patterns and whilst there will be some hands-on treatment this will predominantly be movement exercises
- I will need to test and retest movement patterns between the movement exercises, so you may be moving up and down from the massage couch a few times during the session.
You can expect to work in these sessions. We need to challenge your body in the way it moves, this can only be done by you, I will be there to guide you, but you are in control of your body!
- Whilst you may feel some of the exercises look easy, correctly completing them can vary in difficulty – therefore we ask you approach every exercise with an open mind.
- Once you have regained the movement patterns we will look to increase the load to build strength in these movements
- I will always strive to be honest and open about how you are doing in your treatment plan and ensure we are treating the full body, not just the site of pain
- The plan is laid out in a step by step approach, we have to regain one movement pattern before we can move onto the next, therefore to achieve your goals its essential you are completing your movement exercises daily between sessions, or the treatment plan could be delayed.
- You will be emailed your movement exercise videos the same day as your appointment
Please ask as many questions as you wish – gaining an understanding of the body is particularly important when going through a treatment plan.
Please bring shorts and a t-shirt / workout top for the appointments, please no front fastening bras / sports bras unless they can be undone at the back.