Berkeley, MO

Berkeley, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Berkeley, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Berkeley, 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 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.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Berkeley, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps prevent future health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Berkeley, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Berkeley, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Berkeley, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. 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 landing on uneven ground 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 result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

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

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Berkeley, 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 they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. 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 cause overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Berkeley, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Berkeley, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll come up with a customized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in certain poses they need to be in for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to proper alignments 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 bring the bones of the spine closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it difficult to attain ideal movement health. Symptoms include:

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

By teaching you the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



How to Prevent Injury in Berkeley, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. No one precaution is 100% foolproof 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 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 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.
  • Wear the right equipment — Helmets, chest guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Berkeley, MO physician or injury prevention specialist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other methods like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our Berkeley, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Improve flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It enhances your range of motion, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more forceful movements.
    2. It boosts circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
    3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like basketball that necessitate bouncing and jumping require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use accepted technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of 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 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 is wrong. 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 — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling 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. 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 a good idea to see a doctor before a new season or starting up a new physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Berkeley, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Berkeley, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Berkeley, MO include:

Berkeley, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The professional Berkeley, 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 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. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Berkeley, MO.

Services Offered

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

Our Team

Sara Crain
PT, CEAS, Astym Cert.
Brandi Arndt
MPT, CMPT
Brett Shelton
PT, DPT, OCS, COMT, CSMT
John Teepe
Partner, MPT
TJ Jung
PT, DPT
Justin Bridwell
Front Office
Chris Casner
PT, Clinic Director

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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