Injury Prevention in Champ, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Champ, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through techniques that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Champ, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Champ, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Champ, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Champ, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

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

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy 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 can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Customized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Champ, 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 a variety of musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention experts in Champ, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll devise a customized 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 other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in certain stances related to a given activity. Optimal posture refers to correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it challenging to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility limitations
• 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 Best Practices in Champ, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of 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 — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. 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 and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Champ, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other methods like tying your shoes tightly offers further stabilization.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your customized injury prevention program with our knowledgeable Champ, 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 want to participate in.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more dramatic movements.
  2. It increases circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
  3. It increases your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to store and expel 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 — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate a current injury 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, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, 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 in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Champ, MO is right 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 which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older Champ, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries 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, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Champ, 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

Champ, 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 licensed Champ, 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 can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to find out more about what our Champ, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.