Injury Prevention in Dardenne Prairie, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Dardenne Prairie, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from 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. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Dardenne Prairie, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Dardenne Prairie, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective and are developed uniquely for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Dardenne Prairie, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Dardenne Prairie, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as water polo or volleyball players and typically reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example 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 a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Dardenne Prairie, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on 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 applies to inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Dardenne Prairie, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Dardenne Prairie, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll design a customized treatment plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain stances related to a given activity. Good posture refers to correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which has a negative affect on 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 restrictions
• Poor muscle recruitment

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures 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.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Dardenne Prairie, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t 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 lacerations or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Dardenne Prairie, MO physician or injury prevention specialist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our Dardenne Prairie, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more pronounced movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like soccer that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons compliant enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught 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 break down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament 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 an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Dardenne Prairie, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Dardenne Prairie, MO Adults

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that develop over the course of several years 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, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Dardenne Prairie, 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

Dardenne Prairie, 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 joy. The licensed Dardenne Prairie, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, 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. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to see what our Dardenne Prairie, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.