Injury Prevention in Clarkson Valley, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Clarkson Valley, 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 show you methods that are proven to prevent injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.
Being physically active is an essential part of many Clarkson Valley, MO people’s lives. We love activities like playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Clarkson Valley, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, 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, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.
If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Clarkson Valley, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Clarkson Valley, MO
Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:
- Chronic injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as water polo or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
- 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, broken bones, and dislocations.
Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. 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 Clarkson Valley, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three main causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker muscles will become tired sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Poor coordination
Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Clarkson Valley, MO will bring balance to your muscles.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:
- Joint mobility limitations
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor coordination
- Decreased balance
When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in Clarkson Valley, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll come up with a personalized treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement back on track.
Posture Dysfunction
Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in specific stances related to their sport. Correct posture means proper alignments 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 compress the bones of the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal motion health. It can also lead to:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility limitations
- Poor muscle recruitment
Good posture is a necessary 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.
How to Prevent Injury in Clarkson Valley, MO
You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:
- Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage 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 muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
- Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries like lacerations or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Clarkson Valley, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other measures like tying your cleats tightly offers further stabilization.
- Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Clarkson Valley, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
- Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
- It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more pronounced positions.
- It increases blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
- It enhances your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that necessitate sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.
- Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. 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 reduce the risk of 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 capture how you move and analyze how to improve it.
- Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, save it for another day.
- Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. 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 body heals naturally and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
- 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 helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
- Speak 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. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Clarkson Valley, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated 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 The Elderly in Clarkson Valley, MO
Falls in adults over 65 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 reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Clarkson Valley, MO include:
- Total Knee Replacement Physical Therapy
- Vestibular Therapy
- Concussion Treatment
- Soft Tissue Mobilization
- Post Surgical Rehabilitation
- Shin Splint Treatment
- Direct Access Physical Therapy
- Gait Analysis
- Pelvic Floor Therapy
- Dry Needling Near Me
Clarkson Valley, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exhilaration. The experienced Clarkson Valley, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your 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 of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Clarkson Valley, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.