Injury Prevention Arcadia, MO

Injury Prevention in Arcadia, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified Arcadia, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from 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 by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Arcadia, MO residents. We love active endeavors like playing sports, biking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent significant health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Arcadia, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Arcadia, 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 at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Arcadia, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

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 are accompanied by joint pain.
Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. 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 common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Arcadia, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are inescapable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood 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 having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

Muscle weakness
Muscle inflexibility
Poor muscle recruitment
Poor coordination

Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Arcadia, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing 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
Decreased balance

When you first see our injury prevention professionals in Arcadia, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll design a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in certain body positions related to a given activity. Correct posture means correct positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Arcadia, 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 things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

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 allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, shin guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as cuts or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Arcadia, MO physician or injury prevention professional may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other methods like tying your cleats tightly offers further protection.
Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your customized injury prevention program with our professional Arcadia, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
1. It boosts your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more pronounced positions.
2. It boosts blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
3. It improves your posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.
According to research, sports like football that include dynamic movements require soft tissue 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 — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, 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 educate you on how to improve it.
Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, save it for another day.
Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals naturally and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Arcadia, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

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

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Arcadia, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Arcadia, MO include:

Arcadia, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The licensed Arcadia, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention professionals in Arcadia, MO.