Injury Prevention in Earth City, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Earth City, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to guide you through methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Earth City, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Earth City, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, 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, are based on evidence-backed techniques 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 is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Earth City, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Earth City, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Wear-and-tear 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 use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Earth City, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance 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 the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability 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 within muscle groups, 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 knowledgeable physical therapists in Earth City, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

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
• Lessened balance

When you first see our injury prevention experts in Earth City, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll design a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by 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. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in certain body positions necessary for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the vertebrae, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal movement health. 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, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Injury Prevention Techniques in Earth City, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to reduce that risk. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is prepared for your intended activity:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you have a very high activity level, 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 body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Earth City, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Earth City, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adapt to more pronounced movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like soccer that necessitate sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper 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 reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to both improve your performance and prevent injury.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense training session, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate 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, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals naturally and can handle a return to physical activity.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of 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 examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. 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 see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Earth City, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Earth City, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Earth City, 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

Earth City, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The professional Earth City, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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 do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to see what our Earth City, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.