How You Can Improve Athletic Performance with Manual Therapies

Most athletes will partake in some form of manual therapy to keep them in top shape and performing their best – a chiropractor, massage therapist, physiotherapist, athletic therapists, etc. These practitioners are a big part of an athlete’s overall wellbeing, but how exactly can you improve athletic performance with manual therapies?

Help Maintain Movement

Keeping up with “maintenance” appointments with your manual therapist helps keep you in top shape. No matter what type of athletics you do, chances are you’re pushing your body to it’s limits pretty regularly. This can increase risk of injury, cause tension and even pain, when not managed properly.

Whether you’re working with a chiropractor, massage therapist, physiotherapist or have a whole healthcare team, maintaining your movement and the level of performance you’re used to is the main priority.

Your chiropractor will work with you to ensure that everything is moving as it should and not compensate for any dysfunctions and not putting unnecessary strain on your soft tissues. Your massage therapist will help with any tension or inflammation you may be dealing with, especially after particularly hard training sessions or injuries. And your physiotherapist will work with you to keep your movement patterns working as they should and educate you on areas you may need to strengthen or work on to avoid dysfunction.

Overall, your manual therapists really are the ones that help you prioritize your body and it’s movements which is incredibly important for any athlete if they wish to maintain their performance.

Aid in Recovery of Injury

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One of the main things to get in the way of your athletic performance is injury. That may seem like a no-brainer, but many athletes can jump back into training well before their injury has healed or push themselves too hard after recovery. This can increase the risk of re-injury or you may find that you can’t hit your peak performance quite as easily due to not healing your injury fully or properly.

One of the best parts of manual therapy is that your practitioner can help aid your recovery but also guide you through the whole healing process and what to do to work back up to where you were at pre-injury.

Massage therapy is a great choice for treating pain and inflammation associated with injury and can aid in the healing process and maintain a range of motion. Similarly, chiropractic care can focus on addressing pain after injury, working to correct any areas where you may be compensating for the injury, while physiotherapy will help you slowly regain the levels of strength and movement you were at pre-injury.

When you experience an injury it’s always best to insure that you seek the care and advice of a health practitioner – whether that’s your doctor or manual therapist, getting immediate care for your injury will help ensure you’re doing the right things to make the healing process go more smoothly and that you’re getting the proper treatment so that you’ll be back to your peak athletic performance in no time.

Prevention of Injury

A big roadblock for improving athletic performance comes from not having the knowledge to prevent injury. Without this knowledge you could be training hard, but a small mistake could cause you to injure yourself and thus setting yourself back days, even weeks or months, in terms of training. If this happens repeatedly, your performance and motivation can really suffer.

Your manual therapist is an expert on injury and the things you can do to help prevent them. Work with your physiotherapist, athletic therapist or chiropractor to put together a plan that helps you lower your risk of injury when doing your regular training. While there will always be a risk to athletics, following a regime tailored to your specific needs can greatly improve your training and performance.

Your manual therapist may recommend particular stretches or exercises that target the areas that are specific to your training and needs and will work with you on a maintenance plan incorporating manual therapies to help relieve tension, inflammation, pain which can have an impact on your athletic performance.

Focus on the Whole Picture

If you don’t already, consider the support of an integrative clinic that specializes in sports performance such as Trent Health in Motion. These types of clinics offer a variety of manual therapists that specialize in improving performance and treatment of sports injuries such as athletic therapists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and massage therapists.

Manual therapists look at the whole picture when working to help you achieve and maintain your athletic performance. This often begins with the treatment of pain, injury or areas of compensation to ensure that any type of dysfunction isn’t what is getting in the way of improving your athletic performance.

After working on any treatment needs, manual therapists can also help in the maintenance of movement patterns, proper fitting for equipment and planning and implementing programs that help prevent injury and improve your overall performance. This whole picture approach is the best way to work on improving your athletic performance as it takes into account your individual needs and goals.

Conclusion

Manual therapy has a wide variety of benefits for everyone, but when it comes to athlete’s their help can be an invaluable part of improving their athletic performance. Whether you visit specific practitioners or have a whole integrative healthcare team on your side, the work that they do to manage pain, help recovery, maintain movement patterns and just ensure that you are doing the right things to meet your goals play a huge part in improving your performance.

Just like you care for your vehicle or your home, it’s those regular bits of maintenance and specialized support that keep things running and working as they should, and your body is no different. While it can be easy to shrug off an injury, or ignore an area of tension and assume they won’t get in the way of your performance goals, taking care of those “small” things can add up to big improvements in your athletic performance.

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