Injury Prevention in Campbellton, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for a shot at the next level, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Campbellton, 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 movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Campbellton, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent 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 Campbellton, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action 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 healing from and preventing injury, 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 suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Campbellton, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Campbellton, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive demand 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 manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Campbellton, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur 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 essential to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming tired more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to poor 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 an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

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

Customized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Campbellton, 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 many different musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in Campbellton, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other providers involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in certain stances necessary for a given activity. Good posture means correct positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the bones of the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain ideal motion health. It can also lead to:

• 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 spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in Campbellton, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Campbellton, MO physician or injury prevention professional may suggest 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 withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Campbellton, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more drastic movements.
  2. It enhances blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It boosts your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like football that include sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training 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 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 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 break down your movement and evaluate how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though gutting it out through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet 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 put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. 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 always advisable to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Campbellton, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Campbellton, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Campbellton, 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

Campbellton, 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 euphoria. The experienced Campbellton, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to learn more about what our Campbellton, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.