Byrnes Mill, MO

Byrnes Mill, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Byrnes Mill, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Byrnes Mill, 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 show you exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Byrnes Mill, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent significant health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Byrnes Mill, 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 methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Byrnes Mill, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Byrnes Mill, MO

Injuries typically 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. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or shotput and pole-vaulters and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, 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, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Injury Prevention Byrnes Mill, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Byrnes Mill

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Byrnes Mill, 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 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 maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having ideal posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor 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:

Tailored injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Byrnes Mill, 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. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Byrnes Mill, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll come up with a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed 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 other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain body positions necessary for their sport. Healthy posture refers to proper positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the joints in the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach ideal motion health. Symptoms include:

  • Muscle weakness
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor positioning
  • Joint mobility limitations
  • 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 nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



How to Prevent Injury in Byrnes Mill, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
  • Use the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Byrnes Mill, MO physician or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
  • Boost muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Byrnes Mill, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adjust to more forceful movements.
    2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
    3. It increases your 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 soccer that include sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and release the high levels of energy required. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. 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 concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though gritting through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse 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 the nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers 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.
  • Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor 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 Byrnes Mill, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Byrnes Mill, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Byrnes Mill

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Byrnes Mill, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as 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, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Byrnes Mill, MO include:

Byrnes Mill, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same elation. The knowledgeable Byrnes Mill, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your 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. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to learn more about what our Byrnes Mill, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Lauren Huckstep
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CSCS, Astym Cert.
Annmarie Koenen
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.