If there’s one thing that we should thank for the kind of life that we live today, it would be science. Without it, we would not know that certain foods can be preserved. We also wouldn’t know that medications can be developed to control, if not totally eradicate, illnesses. In fact, life expectancy has dramatically increased in the recent years because of various medical advancements.
Science and its applications are practically everywhere, even in sports. You know, training and actually performing in a sporting event is not just about brute force and clever strategizing. A lot of science is actually involved in it. In this article, we present three ways the field of sports medicine is able to contribute to the lives of athletes.
Improved Performance
For sure, a lot of factors are at play in determining how well a player performs on the court. Of course, there’s talent. There are just some people who are born better basketball or tennis players than others.
Science concerns itself with determining factors other than talent that contribute to good sports performance. Does it have something to do with equipment? Do the clothes being worn have an effect? These are just some of the questions that it aims to answer.
For its part, sports medicine tries to come up with training programs that help each athlete nurture their skill and anatomical strengths. There are also programs that address their weaknesses. On top of these, practitioners may also recommend diet plans that are aimed to support crucial physical activities. They may also recommend food supplements that help maximize the benefits of training.
Injury Prevention
Like any other physical activity, sportspeople do their thing with the constant risk of getting injured. It is now the job of sports medical practitioners to come up with countermeasures that prevent such injuries from happening. They study athletes’ unique anatomies so that they help streamline their movements to minimize the risk of injuries.
These practitioners also help athletes avoid cardiovascular issues such as shortness of breath and overfatigue. They come up with programs that maximize training benefits without putting too much pressure on the heart and lungs.
State-of-the-Art Treatment Options
Injuries can still happen even with the utmost care and most advanced preventive measures. As we said, getting hurt while at play at some point is next to inevitable. Hence, practitioners are also working round the clock to develop treatments that help athletes get back on track. From high-tech stem cell to platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapies, the options are indeed astonishing. These are all geared to assist with healing so that it won’t take so much of the injured athletes’ time.
Sports medicine as a field has contributed a lot to making the life of an athlete easier and more productive. From performance enhancement to injury prevention and even rehabilitation, practitioners work hard to cover all bases. Given the centrality of sports in the lives of many, be it as a form of entertainment or physical exercise, support for sports medicine should never run out.