Antonia, MO

Antonia, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Antonia, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our licensed Antonia, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Antonia, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Antonia, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Antonia, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Antonia, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, 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, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Antonia, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Antonia

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Antonia, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having ideal posture, and the weaker muscles will become tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Personalized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Antonia, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Antonia, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll devise a customized game plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time in the same position. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in specific stances they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture refers to correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

By guiding you to correct 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 Antonia, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like cuts or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Antonia, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other techniques like tying your shoes tightly offers further protection.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our professional Antonia, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
  • Boost flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more forceful movements.
    2. It enhances blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
    3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like soccer that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to store and release the high levels of energy required. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet 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. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Antonia, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Antonia, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Antonia

Injury Prevention for Older Antonia, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Antonia, MO include:

Antonia, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same freedom. The professional Antonia, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in Antonia, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Greg Nicholas
Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Jamie Davis
Front Office
Grace Gualtieri
Physical Therapist

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.