Injury Prevention in Country Life Acres, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Country Life Acres, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Country Life Acres, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of significant health problems including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Country Life Acres, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Country Life Acres, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Country Life Acres, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Chronic injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes such as tennis or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. 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, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Country Life Acres, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

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

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

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

When you first see our injury prevention experts in Country Life Acres, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any additional medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll design a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time in the same position. Athletes and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in specific positions they need to be in for their sport. Correct posture means proper positioning when both static and moving in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the vertebrae, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve ideal movement health. It causes injuries through:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility restrictions
• Poor muscle recruitment

By helping you understand the best practices for 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.

Injury Prevention Methods in Country Life Acres, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. 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, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like bruises or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Country Life Acres, MO physician or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our Country Life Acres, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to handle more drastic movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like soccer that include sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough to incorporate and expel the high levels of energy required. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• 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 are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and analyze 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 sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often viewed as commendable among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, 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.
• 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 helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of 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.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Country Life Acres, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Country Life Acres, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Country Life Acres, 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

Country Life Acres, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same elation. The experienced Country Life Acres, 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 at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to see what our Country Life Acres, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.