Sports and Physical Therapy: Increasing Healing From A Massage Chair

By Duncan Allen

Amateur and professional athletes alike both know that injury comes hand in hand with sports. Sports by its very nature are geared to push the limits of individuals to remain competitive. As boundaries are pushed, limits will be crossed. This is when injuries happen. However, the body is very resilient and with the help of the physical therapy programs recovery times are minimal. These advanced therapy programs build a regimen of activities to restore health and vitality to the affected areas. Many programs require the use of exercise equipment, massage chairs and stretching elements.

You may have just undergone surgery. Or you may be hurt but can recover without surgery. The physical therapist must be able to handle a wide variety of situations for their patients. They are going to design a specific regimen for you to follow. Their goals are to restore flexibility and also to help strengthen the injured or stressed areas. Your therapist is an expert in the make up of the muscle and skeletal systems. They also must know about typical surgery procedures. This helps them understand how scar tissue may form deeper within the body. You will use exercise equipment and perhaps a massage chair to help you heal the injury.

If you are a professional athlete, then your goals are going to be different than if you play sport occasionally. Your physical therapist will consult with you on a direction and time line that fits your needs. An athlete needs quick recovery and to restore maximum flexibility and strength. Whereas the occasional player may take more time to fully recover. In either case, you will be put through stretching, massage, exercise and more. You will get to use various exercise equipment, massage chairs, free weights and more. These are important tools in the therapist's recovery arsenal.

One of the key areas when you start is to make your muscles more pliable. When an injury occurs, the body immobilizes the affected area. Your body has redundant systems for most everything. If your leg is injured, it will want the other leg to take over. The body does not want the injured leg used and tries to shut it down to heal it. This is good, but your muscles become stiff and tight. They actually hurt when you start to bend them. Stretching is an important part of the physical therapy routine to build back flexibility.

Exercises are important to help rebuild strength. When we have an injury, we tend to protect that area. Protecting that area is usually to isolate and immobilize it. In other words, we tend not to use the injured area. This helps to prevent further injury, but at the expense of strength and conditioning. To help rebuild the body, exercises help to build up strength, endurance and agility. Physical therapy clinics have a wide array of exercise equipment from treadmills, stationary bikes, weights and more. These help you focus building up a particular set of muscles.

When you are recovering from surgery most likely you will have new scar tissue. Scar tissue needs to be made more pliable through time. This will enhance the flexibility of the affected area. The mobility of the muscle and also the skin is at stake here. Massage therapy has been shown to increase the flexibility of muscles. When you injure your muscles, the muscle fibers break into short units. This reduces their flexibility. The muscles need to be more pliable by elongating the muscle fibers. Massage chairs use kneading and pressing massage techniques to relieve tight muscles and elongate the muscle fibers to restore their flexibility.

Playing sports is a competitive venture. We all up our game when we need to do so. Sometimes we get too competitive and the intensity gets beyond what our body can handle. Sometimes things just happen. If you are injured, then find the right physical therapist for your needs. You want to make sure you have access to excellent equipment like life cycles, treadmills and massage chairs to speed your recovery. Just stick with the program and your physical therapist will get you the results you need. - 31493

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