Although Brazil still has a large number of sedentary people, the number of physical activity practitioners has grown. According to the IBGE, in 2015, about 61.3 million Brazilians over the age of 15 practiced some sport or physical activity.
This means a growing increase in the market for sports physiotherapy. Although a few years ago it was only linked to professional athletes, today it is increasingly common to see amateur athletes seeking for this physiotherapist, wishing to improve their results.
Were you interested? So, keep reading this article!
What is sports physiotherapy?
Sports physiotherapy, as its name suggests, is the one aimed at restoring athletes, acting both in the prevention of injuries and in the treatment of them.
To achieve this goal, the sports physiotherapist must have solid knowledge in several areas, such as anatomy and histology, exercise physiology, biomechanics and sports kinesiology.
All this to achieve a complete analysis of the athlete’s body, understanding the deviations, compensations and muscle weaknesses that, along with the typical movements of the exercise performed, can predispose the athlete to injuries.
It is also essential that the sports physiotherapist has knowledge in different areas, ensuring an adequate treatment, little invasive and that promotes a rapid recovery of injuries, or that acts correcting the problems and avoiding frequent injuries.
In many cases, the treatments offered in sports physiotherapy may be very similar to those of orthopedic physiotherapy developed in clinics in general, but it is essential to pay attention to some peculiarities, being the main one the physiotherapist’s knowledge about the sport in question and the needs required in its practice.
Only then can the professional think, for example, in a specific muscular strengthening treatment, that works with the most demanded musculature in the modality in question, taking into consideration all the biomechanics of the practice.
Therefore, it is essential that the sports physiotherapist has a solid formation and continues to specialize, studying the various sports modalities.
Why invest in sports physiotherapy?
Possibility of attending amateur and professional athletes
As we said in the introduction to this article, today, sports physiotherapy is much more open and accessible, which makes many amateur athletes also look for this professional, mainly to prevent injuries.
Biomechanical changes, muscle deficits or excessive fatigue in sports practice can lead to injuries both in high performance athletes and amateur runners, for example.
The sports physiotherapist can act helping these people to prevent and recover more quickly from injuries, improving their quality of life and performance in the chosen sports practice.
For this, the professional performs a pre-activity analysis, seeking to understand all the changes that end up leading the athlete to injuries, preventing them from happening again and making the activity more enjoyable, with less pain.
Requires continuous monitoring
One of the main difficulties of the clinical physiotherapist is to maintain his office with a good rotation of patients, since when these people are discharged, they will hardly return for other treatments.
In sports physiotherapy there is a characteristic of its own that requires continuous monitoring of the athlete, ensuring that he will be in full condition both before the races and after the competitions.
For this reason, you will hardly be without patients, as soon as you manage to create a good portfolio and relationship with these people.
Diverse possibilities of action
The sports physiotherapist can act in different ways, making this a very interesting sector for many professionals. It is possible to work together with clubs or sports associations, serving in a specialized clinic, providing service in gyms, in patient groups, among others.
The market is very broad and the performance will depend a lot on the preferences and specialties of the professional. For example, it is possible to work with grassroots teams, ensuring the proper physical preparation of these young people and preventing injuries from happening, or even with groups of people with special needs, who use sports practice in their socialization and physical recovery.
It is also possible to specialize in a certain type of sport, working only with athletes of the sport, whether professional or amateur.
Little competition
If you stop to analyze, you will find that there are not as many sports physical therapists in the country, despite the increase in the number of physical activity practitioners. This means less competition, especially when compared to more traditional branches.
This low competition can be used to your advantage, especially if you are thinking of acting in a broader way, such as creating a sports physiotherapy clinic and serving athletes of all levels and disciplines.
It can be the opportunity to create a differentiated and very segmented business, offering a new service in your city and increasing the chances of attracting more patients.
Promotes well-being
Sports practice is on the rise, after all, more and more people are in search of well-being and more quality of life. But it’s hard to achieve this when you have to live with injuries, pain and even the withdrawal from the sport you’ve chosen.
Therefore, the sports physiotherapist is very well seen, since he works directly promoting the health and well-being of these people, ensuring that they will have a safe and efficient sports practice.
He is the professional that people resort to when they want to improve their performance or achieve a healthier practice, especially in cases of patients with previous problems.
Thus, sports physiotherapy does not act only in the recovery of the injury, but mainly in the prevention, avoiding that these problems happen and giving more security to the athletes.
It’s a growing market
Although sports physiotherapy is not a new branch, the market is heated and growing, because our society has come to value more the sport and physical activities. In addition, the fact that the country hosted the World Cup and the Olympic Games also favored the growth of other sports, not just football.
But make no mistake: in order to stand out, we still need specialization and continued studies. And, of course, to know very well the sport you want to dedicate yourself to.
As you can see, sports physiotherapy is a booming market that still lacks professionals trained and updated in the most diverse techniques of rehabilitation and injury prevention.
If you liked this content, read our post with tips to become a successful physiotherapist and reference in the area in which you chose to act!