Bella Villa, MO

Bella Villa, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Bella Villa, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get a shot at the next stage, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Bella Villa, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an 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 prevent injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Bella Villa, MO residents. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Bella Villa, MO physical therapists allow you to 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 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 level of activity they want to reach.

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 Bella Villa, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Bella Villa, MO

Most injuries 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 such as water polo or quarterbacks, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Bella Villa, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Bella Villa

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Bella Villa, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued 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. Symptoms include:

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Bella Villa, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor coordination
  • Decreased balance

When you first see our injury prevention specialists in Bella Villa, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll design a customized treatment plan 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 slouched shoulders. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in specific body positions they need to be in for their sport. Correct posture refers to proper alignments 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 bring the bones of the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain ideal motion health. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Bella Villa, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries like rashes or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Bella Villa, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly offers further stabilization.
  • Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Bella Villa, 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.
  • Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It enhances your range of motion, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to handle more dramatic positions.
    2. It boosts blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It enhances your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like soccer that require dynamic activities require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted 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 a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. 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.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission 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, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle 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 coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Bella Villa, 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 your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Bella Villa, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Bella Villa

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Bella Villa, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Bella Villa, MO include:

Bella Villa, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The knowledgeable Bella Villa, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention professionals in Bella Villa, MO.

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
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy
  • Certified Wellness Coaching

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Brian Wahlig
Front Office Supervisor
Sarah Schroeder
MOTR/L, CHT, Astym Cert
Mandy Carter
MSPT, CMPT, ATC, CWC
Ray Bauer
Clinic Director, MSPT, CMPT

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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