Avon, MO

Avon, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Avon, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Avon, 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 measures that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule 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 Avon, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Avon, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Avon, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Avon, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Avon, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency 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 set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to 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 lead to:

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Avon, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your physician or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll devise a customized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in certain body positions related to their sport. Good 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 compress the vertebrae, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve 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 a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Avon, 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 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 have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chin straps, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as rashes or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Avon, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may recommend 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 your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Avon, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adjust to more forceful positions.
    2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
    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 basketball that include dynamic activities require muscles and tendons flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use proper technique — In every physical activity, 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 a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though gritting through pain is often seen as commendable among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
  • Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s 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. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Avon, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

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

Injury Prevention for Older Avon, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as 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, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Avon, MO include:

Avon, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The professional Avon, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, 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 do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to discover what our Avon, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.

Services Offered

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

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
Lisa Bell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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