Catawissa, MO

Catawissa, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Catawissa, 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 happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Catawissa, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Catawissa, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Catawissa, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained 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 Catawissa, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Catawissa, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

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

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

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to 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 muscles will become fatigued sooner, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can result in:

Customized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Catawissa, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, causing injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Catawissa, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll develop a personalized treatment plan been proven to work through 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 others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain stances they need to be in for a given activity. Good posture means correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to attain 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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



Injury Prevention Techniques in Catawissa, 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 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 allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Use the correct equipment — Helmets, shin guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like contusions or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Catawissa, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our certified Catawissa, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Improve flexibility — Stretching achieves three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It improves your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more pronounced positions.
    2. It improves circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
    3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that necessitate dynamic motions require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use correct technique — In every sport, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. 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 make sure 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 help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Catawissa, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Catawissa, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Catawissa, MO include:

Catawissa, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The professional Catawissa, 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 learn more about what our Catawissa, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Advanced Work Rehabilitation
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy (BFR)

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Danielle O’Rando
Front Office
Sharon Titter
Clinic Director, MPT

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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