Injury Prevention in Desoto, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for a shot at the next stage, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Desoto, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Desoto, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, kayaking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Desoto, MO physical therapists help you return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

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 Desoto, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Desoto, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and commonly manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, 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 key to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued sooner, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance in relation to other 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 not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Desoto, 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 cause injury through:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Decreased balance

When you first visit our injury prevention professionals in Desoto, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll design a customized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific body positions related to their sport. Correct posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the joints in the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

By guiding you to good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Desoto, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery 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, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as lacerations or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Desoto, MO physician or injury prevention expert may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly offers further protection.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our Desoto, MO injury prevention experts will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more extreme positions.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that necessitate dynamic motions require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 help you get be the best player you can be but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate 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, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. 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 plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. 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 recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or starting up a new physical activity. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Desoto, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, 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 for Older Desoto, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in 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 strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Desoto, MO include:

• Soft Tissue Mobilization
• Post Surgical Rehabilitation
• Shin Splint Treatment
• Direct Access Physical Therapy
• Gait Analysis
• Pelvic Floor Therapy
• Dry Needling Near Me
• Tendonitis Treatment
• Manual Physical Therapy
• Orthopedic Rehab Near Me

Desoto, 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 exhilaration. The knowledgeable Desoto, 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 confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to find out more about what our Desoto, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.