Physical Therapists are a Football Player’s Friend
Football Physical Therapy
Intercept and Tackle Football Injuries
Any athlete who wants to play at a competitive level can benefit from having a great physical therapist in their corner. Football players are no exception. Just like coaches and trainers, physical therapists play an important role in keeping players in top physical condition for practice and game day. From injury recovery to injury prevention, you want a skilled physical therapist on the team.
Don’t Fumble Your Injury Recovery
The most well-known role that physical therapists play in the world of football is helping with injury recovery. Though football is often thought to be associated with high rates of injury, the majority of youth level players will not experience an injury that restricts their participation. Injuries tend to become more common and more severe as athletes age and the forces they are able to create become larger. The majority of football-related injuries affect the musculoskeletal system and occur to the legs including the hips, knees and ankles. The most common types of injuries include:
Ligament sprains/tears (ankle sprains, ACL/MCL tears, etc,)
Muscle contusions
Concussions
Ligament sprains, contusions and concussions are three of the most common football-related injuries. Concussions are an injury that has garnered a lot more attention in the media as of late, due to the concern for long-term repercussions associated with repeated concussions. Football remains near the top as far as concussion rates among high school athletics. The NFL has been tracking the rate of concussions among players during preseason and regular season play since 2015, with the total number of concussions ranging from 172 to 281 concussions per year.
Injuries can happen when two players contact each other such as during a tackle. Noncontact injuries can also occur such as when a player plants his foot in the grass and tries to pivot, injuring a ligament or rolling their ankle. Some injuries may take just a day or two to recover from but any injury that forces a player to modify how they are walking or how they normally move should be evaluated by a physical therapist. This includes concussions.
STAGES OF RECOVERY
The ultimate goal of physical therapy following a football-related injury is to ensure that the injured tissues are ready to undergo the forces experienced during a high impact sport like football. In the case of concussions, sustaining another concussion before the brain has healed from the first one, a condition called second-impact syndrome, can have devastating consequences. In some cases modifying practice or training for a short period of time is enough to allow for full healing and other times full rest from practice and play is needed. It can be difficult at times to know which is the right choice, which is why you have a knowledgeable physical therapist who is trained to help you make these calls. When it comes to recovering from an injury, your PT will help guide you through the stages of healing. Doing too much too soon can impede and prolong the healing process while doing too little at the right time can also under-prepare the injured area for return to play.
When an injury is new, the primary goal is to protect the newly-healing tissue. In this very early phase your physical therapy treatment will focus on reducing inflammation and pain, and maintaining strength in unaffected areas above and below the injury. To achieve these goals your physical therapy treatment may consist of the application of ice or light soft tissue work to mobilize any edema. Modalities such as electrical stimulation or ultrasound physical therapy may be applied to increase circulation, decrease inflammation and control pain. You may need to briefly use a brace, crutches or a sling. In the case of a concussion it often includes full rest from play along with a reduction in screen time, noise and even some schoolwork.
As the healing tissues become stronger, inflammation subsides and pain is reduced, it is time to move on to the next phase of rehab. If your injury is in one of the joints of the leg, ankle or foot, it is important that you are able to walk with a normal gait pattern without any assistive devices before you start adding too much stress to the area. Your PT will help you know when you have reached these milestones and you may begin to perform gentle pain-free stretching and range of motion exercises to restore mobility to the injured area. It is also important in this phase to start performing light resistance training to the muscles around the affected ligament to start activating muscles and restoring neuromuscular control.
Finally, in the later stages of healing your physical therapy treatment will focus on exercises and activities that prepare the injured area to withstand the stress and strain of football practice, play and training. In this stage you may begin more sport-specific exercises and activities to restore power, agility and speed. Optimizing biomechanics and muscle strength and motor control is essential to support the previously-injured joint and reduce the likelihood of experiencing an injury in the future.
Most players will heal from a concussion within a few weeks if an appropriate return-to-play protocol is followed. In the case of protracted recovery, a condition called postconcussion syndrome, working with a physical therapist knowledgeable in concussion rehab is very important to facilitate full recovery in a timely fashion.
IDENTIFY THE CAUSE OF AN INJURY
Some injuries are unavoidable but whenever there is a chance to increase injury resilience in a player, it is worthwhile to do so. Physical therapists are interested in identifying the factors that may have predisposed a player to the injury in the first place, so they can make a plan to address them. Some of the factors that a PT will look for are imbalances in muscle strength, power, endurance and neuromuscular control as well as limitations in muscle and joint flexibility/mobility. They will consider sleep and nutrition habits, a player’s training schedule, their history of prior injury and the physical demands of their role on the team.
These considerations will be a part of an injury rehabilitation program but a player does not need to wait until they are injured to consult with a PT about injury prevention. Off-season training, preseason training and regular season training are all appropriate times to consult a physical therapist about injury prevention and they can help you implement a training protocol to address these risk factors.
DON’T WAIT TO MEET YOUR PT
If you are going to be playing football it is important to have a good PT on your roster. Our team of therapists at Evolve are here to help you recover from injury and be the best player you can be. If you are recovering from an injury or looking for ways to prevent one, call Evolve today to schedule an evaluation.
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Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics- There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better! First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.
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