Bridgeton, MO

Bridgeton, MO

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

Injury Prevention in Bridgeton, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time bike riding, 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 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. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Bridgeton, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Bridgeton, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Bridgeton, 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, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Bridgeton, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Wear-and-tear 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 water polo or quarterbacks and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

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

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued faster, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to inadequate muscle balance in relation to other 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 knowledgeable physical therapists in Bridgeton, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our first 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 treating you, we’ll devise a customized game plan 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 others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in specific stances related to a given activity. Healthy posture refers to proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

By guiding you to ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.



How to Prevent Injury in Bridgeton, 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 greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take it easy after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Wear the right equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Bridgeton, MO doctor or injury prevention expert 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.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our expert Bridgeton, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Increase flexibility — Stretching achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It increases your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more pronounced movements.
    2. It improves blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like basketball that require bouncing and jumping require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use proper 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. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, playing 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 the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
  • Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep participants safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before a new season or starting up a new physical activity. During your physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Bridgeton, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for Older Bridgeton, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and proper posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Bridgeton, MO include:

Bridgeton, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The knowledgeable Bridgeton, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident 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. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Bridgeton, 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.