Injury Prevention in Ethlyn, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get a shot at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants 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 Ethlyn, 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. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Ethlyn, MO residents. We love active endeavors like playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of significant health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Ethlyn, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Ethlyn, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Ethlyn, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as 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 Ethlyn, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having good 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 insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Ethlyn, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

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. It can lead to:

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

When you first see our injury prevention experts in Ethlyn, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other providers involved in your treatment, we’ll come up with a customized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain poses related to a given activity. Optimal posture means 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 reach ideal movement health. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.

How to Prevent Injury in Ethlyn, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take a break after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as contusions or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Ethlyn, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our professional Ethlyn, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Boost flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your soft tissue to adjust to more pronounced movements.
  2. It increases blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require dynamic movements require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. 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 avoid brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can handle a return to physical activity.
• Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Ethlyn, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older Ethlyn, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Ethlyn, 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

Ethlyn, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The experienced Ethlyn, 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 can safely return to the activities you love doing most. 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 start your program with one of our injury prevention specialists in Ethlyn, MO.