Physiotherapy is the science that, through a set of therapeutic methods such as heat, cold, water, massage, and electricity, has the purpose of rehabilitating, preventing, and curing pain in patients with injuries or physical disabilities.
Some of the more notable benefits are:
Improves mobility
Alleviates the pain
Increases strength and flexibility
Helps with posture
Reduces inflammation
Prevents injuries
Why is it important to go to physical therapy even if I don’t have any pain?
Among the types of physiotherapy, there is preventive physiotherapy, which aims to avoid musculoskeletal injuries. Physical therapy is also for healthy patients or patients without present injuries to educate the person about their activities, improve physical condition, and strengthen our body through massages and exercises that relax and tone our muscles, posture correction, and reduction of tension.
From an athletic point of view, physical therapy helps with performance, shortens rehabilitation time, prevents future injuries, and adapts the athlete to their training.
However, physiotherapy is indicated for treatment and prevention for any person, regardless of gender or age. Going to therapy regularly, even without any condition, improves the quality of life.
A cardiopulmonary assessment is a non-invasive test that evaluates the physiological response to the maximum physical effort of an athlete. It offers data on your physical, metabolic, cardiovascular, and ventilatory status; this means that we not only know the behavior of the heart and blood pressure but also that the test provides important information to determine the appropriate training zones and thresholds for different types of sports.
An important benefit of this study is to ensure that the heart is working properly and that the risk factors are minimal. In addition, it helps to differentiate the normal changes that high-performance athletes go through (heart rate, heart size).
This helps prevent what we call sudden death in the athlete. Although the incidence is low (1 per 200,000 inhabitants per year), it is a phenomenon that can occur to any athlete and mostly occurs in apparently healthy young athletes.
It is recommended to anyone who wants to start a sport or physical activity and not only for high-performance athletes, especially if they suffer from a chronic disease such as asthma, diabetes, or hypertension, at least once per year. The parameters will help prescribe the load and intensity of training, assess performance, and prevent or diagnose cardiac complications.
The cardiopulmonary assessment consists of several stages, from the medical consultation, anthropometry, calorimetry, electrocardiogram, and a stress test. It should always be done in the presence of a specialist doctor. Schedule Yours Here. Find out more about this evaluation here.
Physical exercise is any bodily movement that uses energy, and which improves and maintains health. Despite its persistent recommendation throughout the population, the percentage of women who exercise in the world is much lower compared to men. In Mexico around 48% of men do some physical activity while only 35% of women do.
Exercise is beneficial for everyone, it increases self-esteem, helps with stress, controls weight, and helps prevent chronic diseases. In the case of women there is also a greater mineralization of the bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis; performing physical activity reduces the average risk of breast cancer by 25%, improves posture, and in pregnant women it helps prevent gestational diabetes.
The sports most performed by women are swimming, cycling, gymnastics, volleyball, and soccer. Compared to strength exercises, aerobic exercises are usually the most preferred and practiced in gym facilities. This is due to the myth that has been incorporated in into society about “muscle development” in women when weightlifting.
Strength training is necessary for toning muscles, reducing body fat, preventing injuries, osteoporosis, and for aesthetic results. It is important to mention that in the case of women, the hormonal difference compared to men prevents excessive muscle growth.
To obtain better results, it is essential to combine both aerobic and strength exercises, and not focus on one daily routine, since usually the same fear of masculinization prevents training from being suitable for the desired changes. For women, the optimal dose of physical activity varies from person to person. Mostly, it has been recommended to perform at least 150 minutes per week, with a minimum of two non-consecutive days per week of strengthening exercises. Remember that before starting any sport or physical activity it is essential to go to your sports medicine doctor for advice and a general check-up to prevent any injury or complication.
Sudden death occurs in an unexpected and unprecedented manner within the first hour from the onset of the first symptom. Athlete-related sudden death is considered when it happens during or after physical activity.
This phenomenon can occur to any athlete, mostly to men and apparently healthy young athletes. Which tends to be a devastating event for the sports community. Its frequency is low, reporting around one death per 200,000 inhabitants per year. However, it is a condition that is given a lot of emphasis and diffusion since it can prevented.
The causes of sudden death are diverse, including environmental factors (heat stroke), trauma (due to high-risk and contact sports), and chronic diseases, with cardiovascular diseases being the most prevalent.
It is important to know that there are normal physiological and morphological changes in the heart of high-performance athletes, this is called “athlete’s heart” and it is important to know these variations to differentiate normal from abnormal findings. Dichos cambios son: These changes are: symmetric thickening of the left ventricle, sinus bradycardia, prolongation of the p wave in the electrocardiogram, and no presence of atrial growth.
These changes must be distinguished from the most common cardiovascular causes of sudden death for a timely diagnosis, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (main cause), ischemic heart disease, Marfan syndrome, and valvular diseases.
Even with a low rate of cases, sudden death is unfortunately unavoidable at the moment it occurs, but the frequency can be reduced through an appropriate approach. Its only treatment is prevention, which is why its diffusion and education to athletes, their teams and organizations is important.
The recommended measures are a medical check with a specialist in that area, which should include a complete physical examination, a clinical history with emphasis on family history, an electrocardiogram and a cardiological and sports stress test with ergospirometry to assess the heart function under physical stress.
Physical exercise refers to any series of movements performed by the muscles of our body that generate energy expenditure. The activities that can be performed are walking, dancing, running, or cycling; an specific sport isn’t necessary to be active.
There are multiple benefits of exercising. We must consider that a large portion of non-communicable diseases that affect us as a society are due to hypokinesia (low mobility). We have previously mentioned the importance of maintaining a daily physical routine to improve health, take care of body weight, increase muscle strength, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and cancer. However, it has also been proven that one of the greatest benefits is its effect on mental health.
It can help reduce the symptoms of certain diseases such as anxiety and depression, as well as reducing stress, improving sleep, self-esteem and one’s mood.
The mechanisms involved are the activation of neurotransmitters during physical activity, such as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. Which are related to happiness, well-being, and sensation of pleasure. As well as the increase of the blood circulation in the brain after exercising and its influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the limbic system (which controls motivation and mood), and the amygdala. Another explanation of the benefits is the feeling of self-efficacy that exercise emits in the person, the distraction and social interaction that comes from going out to perform a physical activity.
Aerobic exercises have been shown to have a greater impact on people suffering from depression, its benefits are evident and have been proven by studies. Doing 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity at least 5 times a week is enough to present changes in mood.
Exercise is the best antidepressant that exists and at the same time it is the one least used. Exercise should be prescribed as medicine, to do it correctly sport medicine doctors consider different factors depending on the needs of each patient:
Type of exercise: Aerobic, anaerobic or mixed
Duration per session: Minutes, miles or laps
Number of sessions per day or per week.
Intensity: Mild, moderate, or intense.
Example: Denisse does Karate training, which is a mixed sport with predominantly anaerobic activity, each session is 60 mins. and she goes to the dojo for 2 sessions per week where she practices with moderate intensity. But she complements her exercise by going for a continuous (aerobic) run for 30 minutes, 3 times a week at a moderate intensity.
The sum of these activities is known as volume and it will be important to calculate the weekly energy expenditure per exercise as well as the recovery and rest times in order to prevent injuries.
To find out more about how you practice your sport or how to improve your sports performance, visit your sports medicine doctor.
