Country Life Acres, MO

Country Life Acres, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Country Life Acres, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get a shot at the next level, or you just retired and want to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our professional Country Life Acres, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to guide you through exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Country Life Acres, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, biking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Country Life Acres, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

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 most convenient for you in Country Life Acres, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Country Life Acres, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

  1. Chronic injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or basketball players and commonly manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Country Life Acres, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Country Life Acres

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Country Life Acres, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, 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 sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Customized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Country Life Acres, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficits
  • Lessened balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Country Life Acres, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in concert with 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 health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time in the same position. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in specific stances they need to be in for their sport. Correct posture means proper positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, 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

By teaching you good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Country Life Acres, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as rashes or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Country Life Acres, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Country Life Acres, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more forceful movements.
    2. It enhances circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It boosts 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 include dynamic motions require muscles and tendons flexible enough to incorporate and release the high levels of energy required. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden pop 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, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court 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 urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals naturally and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Country Life Acres, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Country Life Acres, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Country Life Acres

Injury Prevention for Older Country Life Acres, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Country Life Acres, MO include:

Country Life Acres, 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 happiness. The licensed Country Life Acres, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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 call the location nearest you to learn more about what our Country Life Acres, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.