Injury Prevention in Crystal City, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Crystal City, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Crystal City, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off future health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Crystal City, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Crystal City, MO for a complimentary 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.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Crystal City, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as raquetball or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
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, fractures, and dislocations.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Crystal City, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally happen 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 key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Crystal City, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

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. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Decreased balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Crystal City, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a customized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in certain positions related to a given activity. Healthy posture means proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it difficult to reach ideal motion health. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Crystal City, 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 things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as rashes or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Crystal City, MO physician or injury prevention professional may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Crystal City, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more dramatic positions.
  2. It improves blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like basketball that include dynamic activities require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to store and expel the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate a current injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals properly and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Crystal City, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Crystal City, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for over 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Crystal City, 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

Crystal City, 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 won’t allow us to experience the same joy. The experienced Crystal City, 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 confident 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 discover what our Crystal City, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.