Injury Prevention in All Saints Village, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get a shot at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed All Saints Village, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many All Saints Village, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed All Saints Village, MO physical therapists help you return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in All Saints Village, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in All Saints Village, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in All Saints Village, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Customized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in All Saints Village, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Lessened balance

When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in All Saints Village, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll create a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain positions they need to be in for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to proper alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility limitations
• Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in All Saints Village, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

• Take a rest — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your All Saints Village, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our All Saints Village, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching achieves three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adjust to more dramatic positions.
  2. It improves blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use proper technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in All Saints Village, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in All Saints Village, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in All Saints Village, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation

All Saints Village, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The professional All Saints Village, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention professionals in All Saints Village, MO.