Eureka, MO

Eureka, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Eureka, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified Eureka, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through methods 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 Eureka, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, biking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Eureka, MO physical therapists help you come back 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, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

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 Eureka, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Eureka, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as water polo or shotput and pole-vaulters and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Eureka, MO

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

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. 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. Injuries can be caused by inadequate 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 having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficits
  • Lessened balance

When you initially visit our injury prevention experts in Eureka, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your doctor or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll develop a customized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture means proper alignments 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 joints in the spine, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it difficult to reach optimal movement health. It can also lead to:

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

By helping you understand ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your vertebrae remain in place.



Injury Prevention Best Practices in Eureka, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Use the correct equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as contusions or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Eureka, MO doctor or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Eureka, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adapt to more drastic positions.
    2. It improves blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
    3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like football that include bouncing and jumping require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use proper technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is bothering you, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous training session, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though gutting it out through pain is often seen as a valiant act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. 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 recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Eureka, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Eureka, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Eureka, MO include:

Eureka, 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 licensed Eureka, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Eureka, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Lauren Huckstep
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CSCS, Astym Cert.
Annmarie Koenen
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.