Injury Prevention Creve Coeur, MO

Injury Prevention in Creve Coeur, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Creve Coeur, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through measures that are proven to prevent injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Creve Coeur, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Creve Coeur, MO physical therapists help you come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention professionals 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, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

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 most convenient for you in Creve Coeur, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Creve Coeur, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

Repetitive demand 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 such as raquetball or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
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, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention Creve Coeur, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Creve Coeur

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Creve Coeur, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Muscle weakness
Muscle inflexibility
Poor muscle recruitment
Coordination deficits

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Creve Coeur, 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, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

Joint mobility restrictions
Muscle imbalance
Coordination deficiency
Reduced balance

When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Creve Coeur, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your doctor or any additional providers treating you, we’ll create a customized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in specific positions necessary for a given activity. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve ideal movement health. It can also lead to:

Muscle weakness
Muscle imbalance
Poor positioning
Joint mobility limitations
Poor muscle recruitment

By helping you understand correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your spine is in its natural position.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Creve Coeur, 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 precautions 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, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
Use protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, safety pads and guards, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Creve Coeur, MO physician or injury prevention professional may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Creve Coeur, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed 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 which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more extreme positions.
2. It increases circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.
According to studies, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.
Use correct 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 with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — 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 something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Creve Coeur, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Creve Coeur, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Creve Coeur

Injury Prevention for Older Creve Coeur, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as 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, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Creve Coeur, MO include:

Creve Coeur, 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 happiness. The experienced Creve Coeur, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your 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 doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Creve Coeur, MO.