Black Jack, MO

Black Jack, MO

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

Injury Prevention in Black Jack, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Black Jack, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Black Jack, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, biking, and more. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Black Jack, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective 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 lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Black Jack, MO for a free 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 today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Black Jack, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or lacrosse players and typically are accompanied by joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. 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, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Injury Prevention Black Jack, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Black Jack

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Black Jack, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance can refer to poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Black Jack, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Black Jack, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll devise a personalized treatment plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for 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 stances they need to be in for a given activity. Healthy posture means correct alignments 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 bones of the spine, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it difficult to achieve 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 the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.



How to Prevent Injury in Black Jack, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • 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 processes. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as cuts or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Black Jack, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other methods 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 rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our experienced Black Jack, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Improve flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more drastic positions.
    2. It increases circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It boosts your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to store and expel the high levels 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 ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and evaluate how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, 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 withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often viewed as a valiant act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate a current injury and put you out of commission 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 rehab with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
  • Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Black Jack, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Black Jack, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Black Jack

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Black Jack, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Black Jack, MO include:

Black Jack, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The experienced Black Jack, 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 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. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Black Jack, 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
  • 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.