Injury Prevention Bonne Terre, MO

Injury Prevention in Bonne Terre, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Bonne Terre, 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 methods that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Bonne Terre, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Bonne Terre, MO physical therapists help you return to action and perform even better than before, 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 treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective 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 just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Bonne Terre, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Bonne Terre, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

Repetitive motion 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 tennis or lacrosse players, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Bonne Terre, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Bonne Terre

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Bonne Terre, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle 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 essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having ideal posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to inadequate 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 the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

Muscle weakness
Muscle inflexibility
Poor muscle recruitment
Coordination deficits

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Bonne Terre, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

Joint mobility restrictions
Muscle imbalance
Coordination deficiency
Decreased balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Bonne Terre, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a personalized game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in certain positions necessary for their sport. Optimal posture means proper positioning 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 compress the vertebrae, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it difficult to achieve optimal motion health. It causes injuries through:

Muscle weakness
Muscle imbalance
Poor positioning
Joint mobility restrictions
Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your vertebrae remain in place.

Injury Prevention Methods in Bonne Terre, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one precaution is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. 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 encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Bonne Terre, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other techniques like tying your cleats tightly offers further protection.
Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Bonne Terre, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more pronounced positions.
2. It increases circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that necessitate bouncing and jumping require soft tissue flexible enough to store and expel the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities 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 help you perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break 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, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. 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 gutting it out through pain is often seen 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 put you out of commission for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules put in place to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Bonne Terre, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Bonne Terre, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Bonne Terre

Injury Prevention for Older Bonne Terre, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years 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, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Bonne Terre, MO include:

Bonne Terre, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The experienced Bonne Terre, 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 at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Bonne Terre, MO.