3 Great Benefits of Sports Medicine for Athletes and Active People

You love the freedom of moving and exercising, which not only keeps you strong and healthy but also reduces stress and keeps your mental health in good shape.

Nearly 47% of American adults make exercise a part of their lives, whether it’s going on hikes with the family dog or participating in a team sport. This also means that millions of people can benefit from sports medicine, which helps athletes of every level.

If your active life is important to you, the multi-disciplinary team here at Michigan Avenue Primary Care wants to draw your attention to some of the many benefits of sports medicine, which isn’t just for pro athletes.

1. Sports medicine encourages faster and stronger healing

There are almost limitless upsides to being active, but there is also a downside — injury. When you’re active, your odds of developing a musculoskeletal injury do increase, and some of the more common sports injuries include:

• Ligament and tendon damage
• Overuse and repetitive use injuries
• Dislocations
• Bone fractures

The list goes on and includes a wide array of both acute injuries, such as a meniscus tear, to chronic issues like Achilles tendinitis. 

Whatever your injury, our sports medicine specialists understand that being active is important to you, so we focus on treatments that get you up and moving as quickly as possible. 

While speed is important — we know that active people don’t like to be sidelined — we also want you to heal strongly.

So, in addition to treatments that address the immediate issue, we also promote physical therapy, and our in-house sports medicine specialist will design at-home exercise programs for your specific needs and goals.

2. Sports medicine emphasizes reinjury prevention

Many injuries among athletes and active people are really old injuries that flare up because they weren’t given enough time, space, and resources to heal properly the first time around.

One of the top priorities in sports medicine is to find ways to prevent re-injury. Of course helping you to heal strongly will help, but we also focus on listening to your body so that you can better determine when to take a break. 

By being more in sync with your body, you can avoid re-injury. While you take a break, we can suggest some great cross-training techniques that will keep you active.

3. Sports medicine improves performance

Another great benefit of sports medicine is that we spend some time reviewing your medical history, injury history, and biomechanics. This larger picture can not only help us avoid injury but also improve your performance. 

For example, let’s say you’re a runner, but you suspect that a few biomechanical tweaks, such as orthotics in your shoes or a shift in your heel-toe striking, could help you run more comfortably and for longer.

The bottom line is that we want to do everything in our power to keep you active and our sports medicine services are designed to do just that.

To see what sports medicine can do for you, we invite you to contact us at our Chicago, Illinois, clinic, which is located in The Loop, to schedule an appointment. You can also visit our urgent care center during operating hours, M-F, 8 am to 4 pm.