Injury Prevention Desloge, MO

Injury Prevention in Desloge, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our licensed Desloge, 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 show you methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Desloge, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Desloge, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, 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 nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Desloge, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Desloge, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as softball or shotput and pole-vaulters and commonly manifest themselves as joint pain.
Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Desloge, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Desloge

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Desloge, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued sooner, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

Muscle weakness
Muscle inflexibility
Poor muscle recruitment
Coordination deficits

Customized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Desloge, 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, causing injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

Joint mobility restrictions
Muscle imbalance
Coordination deficiency
Reduced balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Desloge, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any additional providers treating you, we’ll develop a tailored game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain positions related to their sport. Healthy posture refers to proper positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which interferes with 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 limitations
Poor muscle recruitment

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, range of motion, and that your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in Desloge, MO

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

Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break for the few hours after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Desloge, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our Desloge, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adjust to more dramatic movements.
2. It increases circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.
According to studies, sports like soccer that necessitate dynamic movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important 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 ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to both be a better athlete and prevent 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 isn’t right. 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, save it for another day.
Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing 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, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure 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 coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that leagues enacted 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 licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Desloge, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Desloge, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Desloge

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Desloge, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as 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 healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Desloge, MO include:

Desloge, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The licensed Desloge, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to see what our Desloge, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.