Beaufort, MO

Beaufort, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Beaufort, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get a shot at the next stage, 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 professional Beaufort, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to guide you through measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Beaufort, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Beaufort, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Beaufort, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Beaufort, MO

Injuries typically 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 such as baseball or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example 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.

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

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, 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 maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued faster, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

Customized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Beaufort, 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, causing injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficits
  • Reduced balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Beaufort, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll create a personalized 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 with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific positions necessary for a given activity. Good posture means correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

By helping you understand the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.



How to Prevent Injury in Beaufort, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

  • Take a rest — 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, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Use protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like contusions or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Beaufort, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other techniques like tying your shoes tightly offers further stabilization.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our expert Beaufort, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Boost flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more forceful positions.
    2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
    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 include sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use correct technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. 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 avoid 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 analyze 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 isn’t right. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform 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 you would have been sitting out. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. 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 activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Beaufort, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Beaufort, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility 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 optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Beaufort, MO include:

Beaufort, 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 joy. The experienced Beaufort, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to learn more about what our Beaufort, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.

Services Offered

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

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Danielle O’Rando
Front Office
Sharon Titter
Clinic Director, MPT

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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