Injury Prevention in Bridgeton, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Bridgeton, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Bridgeton, MO people’s lives. We love activities like playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Bridgeton, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals 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 customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered 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 Bridgeton, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Bridgeton, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and typically reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Bridgeton, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are inescapable, they generally occur 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 essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency 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 insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficiency

Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Bridgeton, 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, causing injury. Neurological issues, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Lessened balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Bridgeton, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your doctor or any additional medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll devise a personalized treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain poses related to their sport. Healthy posture refers to proper positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to attain ideal motion health. It causes injuries through:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Bridgeton, 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 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’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’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, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Bridgeton, MO physician or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our knowledgeable Bridgeton, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Boost flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more dramatic positions.
  2. It enhances blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require dynamic motions require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use correct technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and evaluate how to both improve your performance 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 something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While gutting it out through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate an existing injury and leave you off the field or court 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, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules put in place to keep participants safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Bridgeton, 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 which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older Bridgeton, MO Adults

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Bridgeton, 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

Bridgeton, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The licensed Bridgeton, 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 do not have to fear going back to what you love. 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 experts in Bridgeton, MO.