Common Injuries, Fixes And Breaking Plateaus

Is Bodybuilding The Final Frontier To Utilising Sport Science?

- Jason Beaumont

Bodybuilders know the grind. They undergo thousands of hours of pain and sacrifice, all in the pursuit of physical perfection. Like most athletes, bodybuilders typically started their journey with love- love for the sport and its physical and mental benefits.

This hobby often becomes an obsession and the quest for physical perfection becomes the goal. But when did this hobby become a purpose? Whom should you seek for advice? Why are you plateauing? All great questions, but unfortunately, all tend to be answered by gym “bro-science” or Instagram research.

At the English Institute of Sport, I was one of a six-man sport science team whose sole mission was to help our athletes become the best in the world.

So, what is a physiotherapist and how does the role differ from that of a sports or massage therapist?

This is a question I get asked all too often and the answer is simple… it’s knowledge.

Physiotherapy is a degree in human mechanics i.e. a deep understanding of how the body works.

Using this knowledge allows us to identify “how” and “why” something is dysfunctional and not simply what is “sore”.

Bodybuilding requires you to push the envelope and squeeze out every ounce of potential. As a result, injuries are part and parcel of constantly working to the very limits of your ability.

The key to a good therapist is not simply using their knowledge and experience to “fix the injury” but to identify why it happened and adapt your training to prevent it happening again (making a weakness a strength).