Sports Medicine: Keeping Athletes Strong, Safe, and in the Game

We need physical fitness for good health, but for performing athletes, it’s a must. The most impressive world records in human endurance are primarily held by them, with Usain Bolt still having the fastest 100-meter dash, Michael Phelps holding the most Olympic gold medals, and Serena Williams and Simone Biles each with over 20 championship titles.

Staying in that kind of shape takes dedication and hard work, and to keep fit, avoid injury, or get them treated, sports medicine is a key component in staying in the game. This group of treatments is for everyone, but for athletes looking to recover from injury or stay active, let’s review what sports medicine can do to help.

For athletes and people staying active in the Fort Worth, Texas, area, Dr. Joseph Daniels and the Southwest Orthopedic Associates team have sports medicine and many other ways to help you stay fit and on the field.

Understanding sports medicine

This range of treatments plays a necessary role in physical fitness, including diagnosing injuries, treating them, and preventing recurrence. To do this, we work on several aspects of your health: managing injuries, enhancing performance, developing strategies to return to action, and promoting exercise as a tool to improve your quality of life.

The conditions it treats

Sports medicine helps you with several orthopedic conditions, such as:

• Sprains and strains: pulling or tearing your ligaments or tendons

• Fractures: cracks or breaks in the bones in joints due to stress and other factors

• Overuse injuries: repetitive motions performed in everyday tasks can damage joints

• Tendonitis: inflammation of tendons in various joints

• Osteoarthritis: joint inflammation that wears down tissue and bone over time

These issues can affect several parts of your body, but commonly occur in the cartilage, nerves, muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments in your shoulders, elbows, wrists, back, neck, knees, and ankles. 

Our sports medicine options

To help you get through injuries and get on your feet, we have multiple solutions:

Physical therapy

Exercises to retrain joints and improve mobility and stability can help with many problems, such as rotator cuff injuries, back and neck pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome. We also use physical therapy to help you recover from surgery.

Occupational therapy

This helps address long-term disabling injuries and restores the ability to perform daily tasks, promoting self-sufficiency.

Regenerative therapy

To help speed joint and other tissue healing, treatments like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy infuse damaged tissue with a concentrated supply of blood platelets to support cell growth.

Activity modification

After surgery or other treatments to help you recover, changes to your routine may be necessary, and we work with you to determine what suits your needs.

Preventive care

After recovering from an injury or if medical imaging reveals potential joint problems in early stages, we help you find ways to reduce the risk of worsening or preventing future problems.

Fitness improves everyone's life, including athletes', and sports medicine can help you stay in shape to run, jump, and stay active. Schedule an appointment with Dr. Daniels and Southwest Orthopedic Associates to see what sports medicine can do for you.