Talofa Samoa and welcome back to your weekly Physiotherapy column. Today’s column is from BMJ Physiotherapy – enjoy!

Physiotherapists are healthcare professionals who help maximise the quality of life through rehabilitation. They are equipped with the knowledge of human anatomy, physiology and various skills to aid with the recovery of their clients and proper maintenance of physical function.

As for what a physiotherapist is and what they do, they fall under the branch of medical professionals appointed with the appropriate knowledge of human anatomy. Recovery is all part and parcel of physiotherapy, and it’s intended this way to be an efficient approach to getting clients back on track while keeping past injuries in mind to prevent them from worsening. They achieve this by offering advice on lifestyle changes required to manage current or future conditions. 

Aside from that, by assessing and diagnosing movement dysfunctions, physiotherapists are able to restore strength and mobility to the patient’s body through various specialised techniques which involve stretching, joint manipulation, exercise prescription, hydrotherapy, and ultrasound.

Most multi-disciplinary physiotherapists work in hospitals and while the field they major in can be quite vast, it can be broken down into three main aspects.

Physiotherapy in three parts:

1. The first is musculoskeletal, which deals with injuries that are directly tied to the bones, muscles, and joints of the human skeletal and muscle system. Back pain, arthritis, and ligament sprains are all categorised under this area of physiotherapy.
2. Cardio-respiratory is another aspect that focuses on conditions that are linked to the lungs and the entirety of the human circulatory system. Diseases that fall under this wing include chronic bronchitis, pneumothorax, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
3. The final area of physiotherapy is neurology. Neurology deals with recovering clients who have suffered from conditions like strokes, seizures, and brain tumours. For cases of stroke patients, the level of severity could be quite extreme to the point where certain members of the body succumb to partial paralysis. In this case, physiotherapy would assist in getting the patient to slowly recover their control and movement over the affected body parts.

What is a sports massage therapist?

A sports massage therapist is well-versed in the knowledge of the human anatomy as well as the hands-on skills to help athletes with acute and chronic muscle pain and fatigue. They are useful adjuncts to physiotherapy and can help to promote and supplement an athlete’s recovery. They specialise in providing pre-event and post-event care to athletes across all levels and fields. Sports massage therapy aims to help reduce pain and discomfort while improving performance, flexibility, range of motion, and overall body mechanics.

What are the differences between sports massage therapists & physiotherapists?

One important thing to note is that sports massage pinpoints soft tissue issues, also known as muscle issues. Athletes who participate in intensive sports training, competitions and physical conditioning can often suffer from tensed muscles and fascia, resulting in pain and discomfort that could lead to poor performances. Sports massage addresses these restrictions to enable improved movement flow and quality.

Sports massage therapy involves deep muscle and fascia releases which are suitable for individuals with active lifestyles and sedentary office workers due to the common issue of neck aches and pains. These muscles undergo a phase of revitalisation to fully recover and function as usual. These muscles undergo a phase of revitalisation to fully recover and function as usual. As time goes on, muscle performance is enhanced under the therapy and will cut down the chances of catching an injury.

Sports physiotherapy is more specific and in-depth when it comes to how the treatment is done. Contrary to sports massage therapy, sports physiotherapy deals with a lot of client assessment to pan out the order of appropriate and optimal treatment. Rather than being only limited to the muscles, physiotherapy also takes into account the tendons, ligaments, fascia, nervous system, biomechanics, and training load. Due to these varying factors extending across different individuals, it’s very common for physiotherapy to vary differently according to the patient at hand.

Due to the nature of the treatments, exercises that are given to patients to hasten their recovery are extremely reflective of the therapy they are tied to. For example, physiotherapy exercises would engage all parts of the body while sports massage would only be restricted to muscle-related exercises.

• Eliana Viali is a Physiotherapist by profession and can be contacted at the email address [email protected]