No matter the severity, sports injuries can be a pain to recover from if not treated properly or early enough.
If you’re concerned about what the long-term effects of your injury will be, then you should visit an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP).
An AEP is an allied health professional with a minimum of four years’ university training in the use of exercise for medical intervention.
An AEP’s role is to help prevent, manage, and treat chronic diseases, injuries, and musculoskeletal conditions. They do this by delivering tailored exercise and lifestyle modification programs that improve your physical strength, health, and overall wellbeing.
Whether you’ve got a bad knee or you’re a professional athlete who is recovering from a serious injury, an AEP can help you return to doing what you love as quickly and safely as possible.
In this article, we’ll go through some of the key ways an Accredited Exercise Physiologist can help you and when we’d recommend seeing one at Brecken Health Care.
You want to return to your sport after an injury with confidence – not caution
The most important thing to know about the sports rehabilitation process is that it is not driven by time – but by your achievement of key physical milestones that demonstrate your ability to safely and confidently return to sport.
When you return to your sport, we want you to not just be ‘fine’ – our goal is to optimise your function to help you return to the best physical condition possible for you.
Our Return To Sport Program at Brecken Health Care is designed to help you return to functional movement as quickly as possible.
Based on a comprehensive assessment of your medical history, biomechanical analysis, physiological testing, and close collaboration with other health professionals, our AEPs will create a customised rehabilitation plan that specifically targets your return to sport after injury.
You’ve got an old injury that’s flaring up
Even after your injury has been treated and has healed to some extent, there is still a risk of reinjury and you may still experience pain from time to time. An exercise physiologist will create a specialised exercise program to help reduce your pain and avoid injuring yourself again.
Some common examples of what an exercise physiologist will prescribe can include stretches to improve your flexibility and joint strengthening exercises that are custom to your specific injury, as well as warm-up and cool-down exercises to ensure you are adequately prepared for competition.
You’re a professional athlete looking for advice on how to improve your sports performance
A big part of an exercise physiologist’s role is providing education around injury prevention, and other lifestyle changes you can make to improve your overall health and physical function. But did you also know that they are experts in helping sports professionals to smash their fitness goals and reach their peak performance?
If you want to learn how to be the best at what you do as an athlete, you should seek the counsel of an exercise physiologist.
They can work side-by-side with your coach, medical team, trainers, and other allied health professionals to support you on your journey as an athlete, and advise you on:
- Which sports equipment to train with while preparing for your next competition, or while still in recovery.
- Sports-specific strength and conditioning to improve performance.
- Periodised sports-specific physiological training to optimise your fitness for your chosen competition.
- Motivational strategies to achieve your goals.
Looking for an exercise physiologist near you?
Brecken Health Care Bunbury currently has two Accredited Exercise Physiologists, Luke Monks and Arjan Ruba, who are here to help you achieve your sports performance and recovery goals.
During your first appointment with your exercise physiologist at Brecken Health, your AEP will conduct an initial assessment of your history and current condition before creating a Return To Sport plan for you, which will include appropriate strength and conditioning and rehabilitation exercises targeted to your specific injury.
To book your appointment, call us on (08) 9791 8133 today.