Athletes know that they’ve got to maintain optimal health if they want to keep playing the sport they love. Physical therapy with an experienced physical therapist is a big part of that, especially when you’re recovering from an injury.
One of the most beneficial physical therapy methods for athletes is manual therapy. This is a category of therapy techniques designed for mobilization and manipulation. It’s commonly used on joints and soft tissue like muscles. Manual therapy is performed using the physical therapist’s hands. This is why it’s also called hands-on therapy. Here are three of the benefits that athletes can get from hands-on therapy:
- Improved circulation
Manual therapy can benefit athletes by helping them achieve better circulation. Good circulation is vital to athletes for many reasons. It allows your muscles to get the blood supply needed to prevent stiffness and tension. Optimal circulation also helps increase muscular endurance and promotes recovery after exercise.
Soft tissue mobilization is a type of manual therapy, and it’s been shown to significantly improve blood flow. One study of this therapy method reveals that it increased skin temperatures significantly more than other tested techniques. The study concludes that the increased skin temperature indicates a significant increase in blood flow to the treated area.
- Decreased amounts of scar tissue
When you’re injured, your body forms adhesions, or bands of tough scar tissue, around the injury. These adhesions can cause many issues for athletes, including:
- Restricting movement
- Increasing muscle and joint pain
- Delaying injury recovery
Your physical therapist can help you get the benefit of breaking down adhesions thanks to manual therapy. They can use specific techniques that break up the adhesions, which unbinds your muscles.
- Increased muscle relaxation
Muscle relaxation is the best-known benefit of manual therapy, and it takes on a whole new importance for an athlete. Muscle soreness, tightness and pain are all things that athletes expect after practices and games. The good news is that you can greatly decrease these issues with muscle energy techniques (METs), which are a type of manual therapy.
Using METs involves the patient moving the affected muscle in a specific direction. The physical therapist then applies a graded counterforce to lengthen the muscle. One medical study shows that a METs session helped improve hamstring range-of-motion scores by almost six points, which indicated that the muscle was more relaxed.
Whatcom Physical Therapy offers beneficial manual therapy
Curious to find out if manual therapy can benefit you? Our team at Whatcom Physical Therapy can help you learn more about this and many other therapy methods. We offer free screenings that can help pinpoint the cause of athletic injuries and dysfunctions. Additionally, our physical therapists excel at constructing individualized physical therapy plans for each athlete we treat. Such a plan can offer reduced pain and decreased healing time thanks to manual therapy and other techniques, such as:
Contact our team today for more information about all our physical therapy services or to schedule an initial appointment.
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