Whilst our OnePointHealth Physiotherapy team spends a large portion of our time seeing and treating patients who have injured themselves already, we also implement strategies that focus on trying to prevent these injuries from re-occurring or occurring in the first place.
This approach is categorised as injury prevention which encompasses thorough assessment, strength and mobility measures and education. It is debatable if you can 100% prevent an injury from occurring, however, most injuries have a preventable component and this is where being more proactive in activity management can help minimise injuries from occurring.
We have specific screening tools that we use for various sports including:
- Swimming
- Dancing
- Running
- Teams sports such as football, netball, soccer
- Throwing sports
Using these screening tools we have evidence-based objective measures that are designed to give baseline levels. It is these levels that need to be achieved in order to have the foundation of mobility and strength in order to be physically capable of participating in the activity.
Once we establish the level of strength and mobility we are able to provide an individual program and give specific goals and targets for the patient to achieve in order to physically maximise performance and reduce the risk of injury due to poor tissue tolerance and mechanical deficits.
Injury prevention does not only apply to sports injuries. Injury prevention can also include work/occupation activities and activities of daily living that may require a level of conditioning in order for our muscles and joints to be able to cope with the stresses we put them under.
Physiotherapy is a facet of health that is forever changing and moving forward. At OnePointHealth we believe that prevention of an injury is important, not just rehabilitating it once it has happened. So please don’t think you only have to be in pain to seek our help. If you are active, work or are looking to start a new activity please come in and chat to one of our physiotherapists and we will be able to help you minimise the risk of an injury happening.
Some examples of injury prevention strategies we implement at OnePointHealth include load management, progressive overload, recovery, appropriate rest-to-work ratios, nutrition, strength & resistance, mobility & footwear.
