Injury Prevention in Cedar Hill, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Cedar Hill, 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 movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out techniques 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 call the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Cedar Hill, MO residents. We love active endeavors like playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Cedar Hill, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention experts can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, 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 activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Cedar Hill, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Cedar Hill, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or lacrosse players and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Cedar Hill, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur 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 main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having optimal 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:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Cedar Hill, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

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. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Cedar Hill, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll create a personalized game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in specific positions related to a given activity. Optimal posture means correct positioning when both static and moving 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 disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it difficult to attain ideal movement health. It can also lead to:

• 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 can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.

Injury Prevention Methods in Cedar Hill, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. 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, take a break after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear the right equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Cedar Hill, MO physician or physical therapist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like tying your cleats tightly offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Cedar Hill, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adapt to more pronounced movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
  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 necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and expel the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use accepted technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of 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 isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for 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 soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate an existing injury and put you out of commission 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 your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals naturally and can withstand a return to physical activity.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes 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 violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another 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 Cedar Hill, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Cedar Hill, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens accounted for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years 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, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Cedar Hill, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• 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

Cedar Hill, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The professional Cedar Hill, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Cedar Hill, MO.