Injury Prevention in Chesterfield, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our professional Chesterfield, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out 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 contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Chesterfield, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Chesterfield, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, 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 persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Chesterfield, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Chesterfield, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Chronic injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, 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.

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

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

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker muscles will become tired sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, 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

Tailored injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Chesterfield, 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, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in Chesterfield, 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 other providers treating you, we’ll develop a customized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in specific stances they need to be in for a given activity. Good posture means proper positioning when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. 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 your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

How to Prevent Injury in Chesterfield, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. No one technique is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use the right equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Chesterfield, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Boost muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Chesterfield, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more drastic positions.
  2. It improves blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like football that necessitate dynamic movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and exert the high amount of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use correct technique — In every sport, there are accepted 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 are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and evaluate how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. 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 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 plays through pain, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to keep players safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable 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 expert physical therapist in Chesterfield, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Chesterfield, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like 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, balance, flexibility, and good posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Chesterfield, 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

Chesterfield, 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 won’t allow us to experience the same freedom. The knowledgeable Chesterfield, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, 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. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Chesterfield, MO.