Sports therapy, also known as sports physical therapy, is an important tool for athletes of all types and ages. While personal training focuses on losing fat, increasing strength and packing on muscle mass, sports therapy is more concerned with the other end of the equation. Rather than performance enhancement, sports therapy deals with injury prevention and correction. Without sports therapy, injury would be the end of the road for many athletes.
What is Sports Therapy?
According to the Sports Physical Therapy Section, sports therapy "is a specialized practice that focuses on prevention, evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation and performance enhancement of the physically-active individual." (See Reference 1)
Significance
Sports therapy is a crucial part of the athletic lifestyle. With increasing pressures placed upon athletes, the likelihood for injury is higher than ever. In a single second, a player's career could be over. However, qualified sports therapists are here to help ensure that this does not happen. While sports therapy certainly can't fix everything that goes wrong in the athletic arena, it has the potential to save lives and careers.
Active Release Techniques
Sports therapists employ a wide variety of techniques to both prevent and correct injury. One popular method is known as active release techniques, or ART. According to the official ART website, active release techniques is a "patented, state-of-the-art soft tissue system/movement-based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves" (See Reference 2). ART focuses primarily on the treatment of muscle over-use through a variety of stretching techniques.
Self-Myofascial Release
Another method used in sports therapy is self-myofascial release, or SMR. This particular technique involves the use of a foam roller. The roller is run over the muscles to remove pressure points or scar tissue build-ups. A popular exercise equipment company, Perform Better describes SMR as "clients [using] their own body weight to roll on the round foam roll, massaging away restrictions to normal soft-tissue extensibility" (See Reference 3).
Considerations
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can perform these sports therapy techniques on your own. While certain individuals are likely to understand the concepts of ART and SMR, it is best to spend several sessions with a qualified sports therapist before attempting to rehabilitate your own injuries. Without proper knowledge of the subject, you run the possibility of doing more harm than good.
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