Thomas Paparatto is a 25-year-old professional video gamer who has made close to a half a million dollars in prize money from playing and competing in Call of Duty video game tournaments. He was also forced to retire from professional E-Sports earlier this year because of a thumb injury that has gotten progressively worse and has hindered his ability to play effectively.
E-Sport is one of the fastest growing sports in the world with millions of gamers spending hundreds to thousands of hours playing video games every year. Since video gaming relies heavily on hours of repetitive wrist, hand and finger movements, video gamers are at high risk of developing overuse injuries to the tendons and other soft tissue of their wrist, hands and fingers which can lead to pain and loss of playing time.
When a player performs repetitive movements such as clicking, pushing, twisting and turning of their hands and wrist, they cause unusual amounts of stress to the tendons, ligaments and muscles in these areas. Since our bodies aren’t necessarily designed to withstand these repetitive forces, the tendons, ligaments and muscles can become overworked, damaged and painful.
How Can Physical Therapy Help?
Physical Therapists can use techniques such as dry needling, manual therapy and specific exercise prescription in order to decrease pain, help limit the damage to your hand, wrist and fingers and improve your strength in order to allow you to continue gaming. Physical Therapists can also educate you on techniques to utilize in order to prevent future injuries as you continue to participate in e-sports.
How Is Odom Health and Wellness Different?
Odom Health & Wellness is a state-of-the-art outpatient sports medicine clinic in Minnesota including rehabilitation, sports nutrition and sports performance enhancement. We offer medically based treatments that help our patient not only get better, but stay healthy.
Our Physical Therapy team works in conjunction with our in-house Physician, Massage Therapist, Trainers, Coaches and Nutrition experts in order to provide top-notch care. Physical Therapy appointments are focused on you, your goals and how we can best serve you.