Everyone knows that gut-wrenching feeling. You’re running your fifth lap around Benjakiti Park, or you’re rushing to get ahead of the striker who’s come a little too close to your goal, or perhaps you’re just spending a warm summer afternoon playing 18 holes. Whaaaam! Shooting pain suddenly streaks up and down your body. What’s happened finally hits you. You’ve pulled a muscle again.
We’re all urged to participate in regular exercise to keep healthy and avoid getting fat, so playing a sport is a great way to stay in shape. It’s often underestimated though how easy it is to get carried away in the heat of the moment and cause injury to yourself.
Even if you aren’t over-exerting, sports injuries can occur from the smallest mistakes. Simply just landing on your foot in an awkward angle while running can produce a sprained ankle.
What do you usually do when that happens? While a cold press might be enough for minor injuries, sometimes the pain can persist for several days or weeks – and if that happens, it might be time to see a specialist.
At Pain Away Clinic, we treat patients with sports related injuries on a daily basis, and our licensed physical therapists are knowledgeable in pain relief and recovery. We take detailed muscle analysis and reports to help determine problem areas, fix faulty sports techniques that may be causing more harm, and educate our patients on what they can do to help with recovery at home.
Here is an example of our Muscle Reports (click on the image to zoom):
What is sports massage therapy?
Sports massage is a type of physical therapy that is used either before or after an athletic event. Sports massage therapy is actually very similar to deep tissue massage – though the treatment is more focused.
While they both involve primarily applying firm, constant pressure on the muscles and connective tissues, sports massage therapy also involves specialized stretching and exercises that target problem areas.
How does sports massage therapy work?
Sports massage deals mainly with the manipulation of soft tissue in the body (such as muscles, ligaments, tendons) to benefit a person participating in regular physical activity. Sports massage therapy aims to achieve the following:
- REDUCE inflammation and swelling
- RECOVER from injury-related pain and aches
- RESTORE normal functioning to the affected area
At Pain Away Clinic, we start you off by taking a preliminary consultation and physical diagnosis. This quick exam is facilitated by one of our licensed physical therapists and is used to quickly rule out all other possible factors and get down to the root cause of your ailment. Our therapist may ask you questions about how the injury had occurred and how it has progressed over the last few days.
Following the diagnosis, the therapist selects a specific treatment required to administer the fastest pain relief. The sports massage therapy begins and can last up to an hour. Specific treatment equipment may also be used to supplement the treatment, such as electrical nerve stimulation, shockwave, or ultrasound therapy. The combination of the above treatments is selected to significantly reduce pain and get you started on the right track to recovery.
In some cases, you may also be moved to our dedicated physical therapy and rehabilitation training room. This is a a new wide, spacious area we’ve opened where our therapist can demonstrate stretches and exercises with you in one-on-one sessions to help improve your technique and give you tips to prevent the same issue from arising again in the future.
After having gone through the entire session, you sit down with our therapist and get a summary on your condition, as well as advice on other things that can be done to make recovery quicker. You may also be advised to return for further sessions if your ailments are severe and you are not comfortable practicing the exercises or stretches alone at home.
Below is a quick video on the treatment procedures you can typically expect at our clinic.
Is sports massage therapy right for me?
A common misconception is that getting a sports massage is only for professional athletes. From injury recovery to training and conditioning, it can be beneficial to people of all skill levels. Adding elements of sports massage to your next session at your physical therapist can have numerous benefits: improved flexibility, speedy recovery, lower risk of injury, and even a heightened circulatory system.
Whether you are looking to take your game to the next level, looking to heal faster from a sports related injury, or simply looking to get advice on how to prevent health issues while enjoying a weekend past-time, have a chat with your physical therapist about how they can help.
Pain Away Clinic is amongst Thailand’s leading pain relief clinics. Patients come to get treatment for sports-related injuries every day, and all of them leave feeling much better when they came in. You can read some of their stories here. We are more than happy to give you a quick consultation if you’ve got any questions or are simply looking to get a professional opinion.
Feel free to reach out to us, or come on down to our clinic at Asoke, Bangkok so that we can help you get a proper diagnosis and find you an effective treatment plan to speed up your recovery.
