Vancouver Physio Nirushan Guruparan – Sports & Knee Focus Injuries

What inspired me to become a physiotherapist? Well, when I was a kid, I grew up playing a lot of sports. I played a lot of soccer. We were playing tennis, I did some TaeKwonDo, I did swimming as well. And so I was really immersed into athletics as a kid. And if I wasn't playing the sports, I was either watching them on TV, reading about them, I would read sports autobiographies.

I would read about fitness, dieting, nutrition. Those are always the things had me interested in what was a kid. And when I went to university, I took a lot of courses in physiology, biology, biomechanics and sports psychology. Those are the type of stuff that really was driving me to learn more about my profession and different professions in general.

And I also knew for myself that I want to be in a field where I can actually help people in person and learn about people's stories, where they came from. And I know I wanted to help them in some way or form and physiotherapy became the ultimate profession that had basically everything I was looking for in one.

And that's what inspired me to become a physiotherapist. If I wasn't playing or watching sports. I was actually doing a lot of drawing. I would draw anything from like buildings to humans, to animations, to cartoons. Drawing was what I did for a long period of time. I mean, if you talk to any of my friends before I was 18, they would know me as the art guy and the drawing guy. 

So when I finished university, the other profession that was looking at was something called a medical illustrator. It's basically a combination of anatomy, physiology, type of human biology and art together. So if I have to choose another profession, that's not physio. That would probably be the best fit for me. 

In my free time, I like watching a lot of movies, new TV shows. I love listening to music, R&B and hip hop are some of my favourite genres. So if you know some good R&B music right now, please give me some recommendations.

I love going to concerts. I love hanging on my friends. I just recently moved here from Toronto. So you'll find me calling my friends in Toronto quite often throughout the days, these days. And I love traveling a lot and I've gone to Mexico. I actually grew up in Italy for a couple of years. So that's something, so that's a place I would like to go back. I'm originally from Sri Lanka as well. So I definitely need to head back home at one point, but I'm new to BC and I'm excited to go hiking. So that's going to be a new hobby that I can't wait to explore. So if you have any suggestions on hiking trails and you come see me, please let me know some recommends. 

I like treating all areas of the body and everything is unique and I love learning about the human body, but if I had to pick one area, it would probably be the knee. I've always been interested in with the structural integrity of the knee, either loaded and the different injuries that affect the knee.

It's always interesting to kind of figure out how like your feet and basically your hips kind of all impact the way your knees are moving and working. The knees are actually commonly injured in sports. So obviously when I was growing up, that's one of the things I'm always curious about, like how long is it gonna take for my favourite players has come back from injury.

As well on a personal level, I actually had knee pain. That's probably one of the first exposures I had to physical therapy. I had a hard time just accelerating, decelerating, moving quick, and I knew how debilitating it felt to be able to perform at a good level. I couldn't catch my next man. So the knee has always been close to my heart as an area that I like to treat.