Pooja Dhamapurkar

I am a sports physiotherapist working at Pro physiotherapy. I have a Bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy from India and a master’s degree in sports and exercise physiotherapy from Cardiff university.

My fascination with the body and understanding how it functions fuelled my desire to pursue a career in Physiotherapy as it incorporates science, sports and medicine which are all areas of specific interest to me. I started my Physiotherapy journey in the year 2014 in India, where I received a well-rounded education in musculoskeletal, neurology, cardiorespiratory and community physiotherapy. I graduated with a distinction in 2019.

Stemming from my keen interest in sports, I have a two-year field experience in football, Tennis, Badminton and Squash. In addition to being a physiotherapist, I have undertaken a foundation course in military training, which gives me an understanding of disciple required by the athletes. This helped me to come up with effective and efficient training protocols. Furthermore, I like to stay up to date with my knowledge and practical skills and reflect that when treating my patients. I believe in working towards the betterment of the patients by providing quality treatment.

I specialize in myofascial release, dry needling, kinesio taping, cupping, neurodynamic solutions. My expertise is treating spinal and ankle conditions. I thrive on freeing people from pain and discomfort in the shortest time frame possible. My interest of sports is squash and mixed martial arts.

I started my professional career as an intern with Dr Swapnil, an Olympic sports physiotherapist and I completed my UK accredited certification course in myofascial release, kinesiology tapping, Dry needling, cupping, manual therapy, Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilisation (IASTM), neurodynamic solution and pain biomechanics in this setting. These skills were practically applied to alleviate symptoms by pain reduction and swelling, relaxation of contracted muscles that led to early restoration of movement, return to function and training.

I got a chance to work with under-16 Badminton and under-16 Tennis tournament where I successfully managed to assess and treat acute as well as chronic injuries with critical thinking and sound clinical reasoning; prevented further complications and injuries.

Later, I worked in a multi-disciplinary sports clinic for a year under Dr Rizwan Khan, a head sports physician who has worked with elite cricket players. It opened a window into learning more about one of my favourite sports- Cricket. The players came with varied injuries of shoulder, back, hip which were addressed using manual and rehabilitation techniques. To get into the depth of cause of an injury, we used to carry out video analysis to study the movement of the athlete while training or match. In addition, a communication with the coaches about the goals and demands necessary during the gameplay was done to optimize the performance.

Additionally, the clinic had a tie up with marathon sponsors and thus the clinic had high cases of runners. Since athletes had a time frame to return to play or sports, I had to program a periodized and systematic management plans. A biomechanical running assessment prior to a major marathon event to identify the risk factors and prevent them. Moreover, mobility and motor control evaluation for early recognition of an abnormal movement to prevent as well as treat common running injuries such as Groin, hamstring, ankle injuries and so on was conducted.

During the course of working with this setting, I got an opportunity with JSW squash open, a three-day event; where I supported athletes with physical preparation for competition, provided athlete support services to enable optimal athlete independence during game time, administered treatment for minor injuries such as bruises, blisters as well as major treatment using taping, dry needling and manual therapy wherever necessary for the players to continue the game.

I moved to the UK in 2020 to persuade my masters in sports and exercise physiotherapy which ameliorated my knowledge about the specific injuries and its implication on sport and daily life, possible aetiology and overall management of the problem. I sailed through it in 2022.

Moving further, I successfully completed the Sports trauma management course in 2021 which provided me with a knowledge to effectively manage serious traumatic sports injuries, assessment and management of head injuries in sport (incl. concussion & compression) spinal injury assessment and management.

I currently undertook a CPD course in child protection in sports and physical activity, which enabled to me to identify, report and record concerns with young athletes and also apply good safeguarding practices in sports and physical activity settings.

Outside the clinic time, I like to gym 3 times a week and also enjoy boxing.