Injury Prevention in Brentwood, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Brentwood, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques 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.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Brentwood, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, biking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Brentwood, MO physical therapists help you return to action even stronger after an injury, 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, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Brentwood, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Brentwood, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Chronic 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 athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

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

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to poor muscle balance between 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. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Brentwood, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Brentwood, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll come up with a personalized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain body positions necessary for their sport. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities 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 communication between your brain and body and makes it harder to achieve ideal movement health. Symptoms include:

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

By teaching you 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 spine is in its natural position.

Injury Prevention Techniques in Brentwood, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. 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 prepared for your intended activity:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use the correct equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like bruises or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Brentwood, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Brentwood, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more pronounced movements.
  2. It improves blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that necessitate dynamic activities require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best 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 learn 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 break down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, 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 get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though gritting through pain is often seen as a heroic act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate a current injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Most 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 existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Brentwood, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Brentwood, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Brentwood, MO include:

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

Brentwood, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same elation. The licensed Brentwood, 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. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Brentwood, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.