Injury Prevention and Improved Performance
Injuries: Prevention is better than cure.
Physiohealth has developed sports specific musculoskeletal screening protocols to identify the weaknesses in athletes that may predispose them towards particular injuries. With a battery of flexibility, strength and stability tests, the physiotherapists can identify areas within an athlete that need attention in order to reduce their injury potential and maximise their technique and athletic ability. Physiotherapists at Physiohealth have been central to the establishment of the screening protocols for Swimming Australia, Football Victoria and Melbourne Victory Women’s. We have expanded this knowledge to other sports including triathlon, athletics, golf and gymnastics. These screening protocols are necessary for any athlete serious about maximising performance and reducing the incidence of injury.
More recently through our work with Kangatech we have been able to take these screenings to a new level. EMPIRCAL STRENGTH TESTING! The inter-tester reliability issues that plague commonly used “hand-held” devices no longer exist with this system. The Kangatech device is the most sophisticated, and more importantly reliable, muscle testing equipment on the market which is why the AFL, English Premier League and the PGA are using it. Athletes do not need to worry about the tester reliability because they know the results are always accurate regardless of who is doing the tests. Kangatech uses sport specific testing protocols based their discussions with the AFL, EPL, PGA and swimming medical staff that allows athletes to compare their results to their peers but also to similar athletes all over the world. Using these results Physiohealth is now able to quantify for the athlete the weakness we see using the Functional Movement Scales.
Performance Enhancement. The exciting bit!
Weaknesses and movement limitations left unchecked lead to the following;
- Excess unnecessary muscle and energy use by the body
- Earlier onset of fatigue due to excess muscle/energy use
- Reduced frequency and duration of good technique
- Inconsistency in performance
By identifying your weakness and movement limitations our physiotherapists quickly implement strategies through a robust strengthening program to correct these deficiencies. We can also provide helpful data to strength and conditioning coaches to help individualise and modify programs. Once these are optimised the athlete is able to perform their skills more frequently with less energy wastage. This results in delayed muscle fatigue resulting in improved performance.
