Injury Prevention in Doe Run, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Doe Run, 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 body’s current condition and how you move to teach out measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.
Being physically active is vitally important to many Doe Run, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Doe Run, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.
If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Doe Run, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Doe Run, MO
Injuries generally fall into two categories:
- Chronic 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 athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
- Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.
Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Doe Run, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Poor coordination
Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Doe Run, MO will bring balance to your muscles.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:
- Joint mobility limitations
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor coordination
- Reduced balance
When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Doe Run, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any other providers treating you, we’ll create a tailored treatment plan 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 at lest, sitting, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Good posture means correct positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain optimal movement health. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility limitations
- Poor muscle recruitment
By helping you understand good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your spine is in its natural position.
How to Prevent Injury in Doe Run, MO
You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. 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 a rest — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
- Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Doe Run, MO doctor or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
- Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our Doe Run, MO injury prevention experts will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
- Increase flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
- It enhances your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more forceful positions.
- It increases circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
- 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 football that require sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.
- Use proper technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of 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 evaluate how to improve it.
- 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, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to 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, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse 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 an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
- Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
- Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your appointment, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Doe Run, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has 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 Senior Citizens in Doe Run, MO
Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Doe Run, MO include:
- Total Knee Replacement Physical Therapy
- Vestibular Therapy
- Concussion Treatment
- Soft Tissue Mobilization
- Post Surgical Rehabilitation
- Shin Splint Treatment
- Direct Access Physical Therapy
- Gait Analysis
- Pelvic Floor Therapy
- Dry Needling Near Me
Doe Run, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Being injured in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exhilaration. The knowledgeable Doe Run, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your 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 call the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Doe Run, MO.