Injury Prevention in Crestwood, 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 being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Crestwood, 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 teach out methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Crestwood, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Crestwood, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Crestwood, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Crestwood, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Crestwood, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally happen 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 handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and staving off 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 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. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Crestwood, 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. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficiency
• Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Crestwood, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll devise a personalized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to the level you need it to to do what you love.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in specific body positions related to a given activity. Correct posture refers to proper alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the vertebrae, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it difficult to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

By guiding you to 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.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Crestwood, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do 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’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as rashes or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Crestwood, MO physician or physical therapist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further protection.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our certified Crestwood, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more drastic movements.
  2. It boosts blood flow, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that include sudden twists and movements require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use proper 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 prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and evaluate how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though gutting it out through pain is often seen as commendable 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 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 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 — 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 head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Crestwood, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, 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 Crestwood, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Crestwood, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• 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

Crestwood, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The licensed Crestwood, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention professionals in Crestwood, MO.