How Can Physical Therapy Help With Throwing Injuries
What are Throwing Injuries?
Throwing injuries are injuries caused to the shoulder, arm, wrist, or elbow due to overhand sports like softball, baseball, and basketball or due to activities that cause stress in any of the parts of the hand. Constant pressure, over time, can lead to serious conditions like tendonitis, ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries, and Superior Labral tear from Anterior to Posterior (SLAP). Common types of these throwing injuries are rotator cuff injuries, labral tears, and shoulder impingement and instability.
Physical therapy is one of the oldest methods to heal and repair the damage caused due to such injuries. It uses a routine of exercises, manual pressure techniques, and physical agents, like electrical impulses and superficial temperature applications, for recovery from such wounds. Here, we explain how physical therapy helps with different types of throwing injuries.
Exercise Therapy
Damages to the rotator cuff (four muscles that stabilize and allow the shoulder to move), like tears and impingement, are the most common shoulder injuries that can be fixed with exercise therapy. Other disorders that can be treated with exercise therapy include shoulder, back, and neck aches, dislocation of the muscles, frozen joints, and strain and pulling of the tendons. Some of the exercises used for such injuries are:
Doorway Stretches
These drills work on the shoulder, back, and the chest muscles. They loosen the muscles in these parts by facilitating improved blood flow and supplying nutrients to the areas.
Side-lying External Rotation
This exercise is specially used for rotator cuff injuries. It strengthens the rotator cuff, offering better balance and stability to the upper arm muscles.
High-to-low Rows
This exercise can be performed either while standing or sitting. It helps in stretching the muscles of the arm, increasing their flexibility, and restoring the range of motion. It also helps in improving the coordination of the muscles in the shoulder and the back.
Manual Therapy
It is the manual application of pressure by the therapist to manipulate the tissues and muscles for healing. The various techniques used in manual therapy and the injuries they heal are as follows:
Massage
Massages improve lymphatic drainage, blood circulation in the joints and tendons, increases muscle flexibility and connectivity of the tissues, and relieves you of spasms and cramps.
Myofascial Release
It helps in the decrease of gamma gain, resolving the hypersensitivity to stretching and muscle flexing. It also loosens the tight fascia, restoring mobility in the limbs.
Joint Mobilization
This technique helps in restoring and replacing the joints to their original positions. It brings about the stimulation of the joint receptors, boosting their connectivity with the surrounding joints and muscles.
Physical Agents
This form of therapy is used when inner tissues are damaged or for conditions where the techniques mentioned above do not work. Temperature, electrical stimulations, and ultrasound are the commonly used agents that aid in pain relief, regulation of blood flow, clearing the restriction of muscles, and unlocking muscle spasms.
Throwing injuries are very common with athletes. Read here to know more about how useful physical therapy is for athletes. Physical therapy offers healing benefits to treat a lot of disorders like strokes, blood pressure, and arthritis. We, at InHome Physical Therapy and Massage, offer experienced therapists to help with such problems that can be dealt with physical therapy.
