Professional athletes play sports for a living and strive to achieve top standing in their field through years of training. Professional athletes are people with natural talent, stamina, and competitive drive. They have excellent reflexes and coordination and are well disciplined when it comes to rigorous practice and training. Professional athletes must keep their bodies in excellent condition.
If there is one thing athletes never wished to deal with, it would be injuries. Yet, injuries are always a risk and unavoidable throughout ones career. Sports can tax the physical limits of the human body. This can strain the muscles and ligaments. Thankfully, the process of physical therapy can be employed as a means of reversing the common problems associated with injuries. Physical therapy for athletes also maintains a preventative benefit to it. Once you have gone through therapy, you can reduce the potential for further injury from occurring.
As a professional athlete, I have experienced many setbacks in my career due to shoulder problems. As a result, I’ve worked with a number of physical therapists and have enjoyed the positive outcomes associated with the exercises prescribed to me. The feedback received from physical therapists have always been positive because our goals are aligned. Athletes want to get back to the competition as soon as possible while physical therapists want to have a patient that follows instructions explicitly.
The added bonus of working with physical therapist over the years is that many of my PTs have taken advantage of working with my athletic trainers to help co-create a treatment plan that addressed my specific needs. Therefore it is important to know that athletic trainers excel in late-stage rehabilitation, making them an important asset for transitioning athletes back into competition safely.
As you can see, each profession serves as a resource for the other and combining their skills creates the best possible scenario for the athlete they’re working with. By letting each profession fulfill the roles they excel in, athletes are given the highest quality of care and will achieve the best outcome possible.
