Augusta, MO

Augusta, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury keep you from the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Augusta, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Augusta, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Augusta, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent future health problems including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Augusta, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, 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 customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Augusta, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Augusta, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Repetitive motion 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 use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling 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 either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

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

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, 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 maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Augusta, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficiency
  • Lessened balance

When you initially visit our injury prevention specialists in Augusta, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll create a tailored plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, using the computer, or in specific body positions they need to be in for a given activity. Good posture means correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

By helping you understand correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Augusta, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as lacerations or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Augusta, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Augusta, 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 want to participate in.
  • Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more dramatic positions.
    2. It enhances blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
    3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that necessitate dynamic activities require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use correct technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best player you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous 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 soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and rehab with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals properly and can handle a return to physical activity.
  • Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Augusta, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have 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 Augusta, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Augusta

Injury Prevention for Older Augusta, MO Adults

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity is a great method for preventing falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Augusta, MO include:

Augusta, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The licensed Augusta, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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 of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or call the location nearest you to find out more about what our Augusta, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.

Services Offered

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

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Brittany Stapp
Front Office Supervisor
Sara Dowil
OTR/L, CHT
Mike Faris
Clinic Director, PT, CMPT
Kelly Basler
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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