Sports medicine is the practice and study of medical ideas and principles that relate to sports in many different areas. Some of those areas include sports injuries as well as the prevention and treatment of those injuries. They also include sports training and performance as well as exercises, nutrition, and even psychology.
A sports medicine specialist is someone who specialized in the training and educational path that relates to sports medicine. This person might focus on the medical or therapeutic aspects of various physical activities relating to sports. A sports medicine specialist could be a physician, but that is not always the case. There are a variety of programs in sports medicine including simple certificate programs, bachelors and even masters degrees.
Sports medicine physicians are actual doctors who have trained in the field that specialized in sports related injures. They focus on preventing, diagnosing, and treating sports-related injuries that can commonly occur when doing a sporting activity or another similar physical activity. Physicians with this specialty go through special training programs in order to finish their residency with the focus on sports medicine. There are not large residency sports medicine programs so they often specialize in something like primary care and then go on to specialize in sports medicine. Most of the doctors have a three-year family medicine residency behind them after they finish medical school and then they specialize in sports medicine from there.
Sports science, which is also called exercise science, is similar to sports medicine. This particular science field studies and applies principles of anatomy, psychology and physiology to human movement. Exercise science itself is a rather young field and there is still a lot of research being done in the area. The research focuses on the human body and how exercise or lack of exercise affects the body. The work can go towards helping general people, children, older generations, or even elite athletes.
There are many different career opportunities in sports medicine and science. Usually, those who work in the field choose between two major areas. The first area specializes in improving people’s lifestyles or enhancing their athletic performances. The other focuses on prevention of or recovery from injuries. Overall, the goal of any sports medicine professional is to help people achieve their health and performance goals. Those who want to work in the field should look into degrees in sports medicine and sports science. They should also look for clinical work and perhaps get jobs as trainers and coaches to further their studies in the field. Those who go into sports medicine sometimes become nutritionists, researchers, athletic trainers, team coaches, sports psychologists or a number of other things. The field is still broad and has plenty of opportunities for those interested in such a career.
Texas Sports Medicine – Txortho.com is a website that helps with sports rehabilitation details including physical therapy, surgery, prescriptions, sports medicine and much more for those who live in Texas.
