Injury Prevention in Concord, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for a shot at the next stage, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Concord, 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 body’s current condition and how you move to show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Concord, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off significant health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Concord, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action 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 recovery and injury prevention, 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 lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Concord, 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, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Concord, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. 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, 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 Concord, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen 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 supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for 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 faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can result in:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Concord, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, causing injury. Neurological issues, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

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

When you first see our injury prevention professionals in Concord, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll devise a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in specific positions they need to be in for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder 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 teaching you ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in Concord, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — 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 encourage your body to engage in its natural healing 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.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Concord, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques 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 your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our experienced Concord, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more forceful positions.
  2. It increases blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons compliant enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate a current injury and put you out of commission for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Concord, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Concord, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Concord, 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

Concord, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same joy. The experienced Concord, 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 confident 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 once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to learn more about what our Concord, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.