Injury Prevention in Clover Bottom, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for an opportunity at the next level, 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 activities you love. While our professional Clover Bottom, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.
Being physically active is an essential part of many Clover Bottom, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off serious health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Clover Bottom, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the activities they want to return to.
If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Clover Bottom, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Clover Bottom, MO
Injuries generally fall into two categories:
- Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
- Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include landing on uneven ground 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 either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Clover Bottom, MO
While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen 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 crucial 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 one set of muscles becoming tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Coordination deficiency
Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Clover Bottom, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:
- Joint mobility restrictions
- Muscle imbalance
- Coordination deficiency
- Decreased balance
At our initial injury prevention appointment in Clover Bottom, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your physician or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll devise a personalized game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.
Posture Dysfunction
Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in specific stances necessary for their sport. Good posture refers to proper 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 compact the vertebrae, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility limitations
- Poor muscle recruitment
Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, range of motion, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.
How to Prevent Injury in Clover Bottom, MO
All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions 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, 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, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
- Use the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as contusions or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Clover Bottom, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further protection.
- Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Clover Bottom, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
- Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
- It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more drastic positions.
- It increases blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
- It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.
According to studies, sports like soccer that require bouncing and jumping require soft tissue compliant enough to incorporate and expel the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.
- Use correct technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use 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 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, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous 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, 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 ensure your body heals properly 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 reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. 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 always advisable to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Clover Bottom, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.
Injury Prevention for Older Clover Bottom, MO Adults
Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Clover Bottom, 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
Clover Bottom, 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 exultation. The professional Clover Bottom, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Clover Bottom, MO.