Farmington, MO

Farmington, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Farmington, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Farmington, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Farmington, MO residents. We love active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off future health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Farmington, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Farmington, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Farmington, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Chronic injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or shotput and pole-vaulters and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. 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 of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Farmington, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally occur 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 key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in dependency on 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 muscles will become fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by inadequate 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. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Farmington, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in Farmington, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll come up with a customized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with slouched shoulders. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in certain positions they need to be in for their sport. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to attain 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 helping you understand correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.



Injury Prevention Best Practices in Farmington, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. 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 desired activity level:

  • 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, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Use the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like contusions or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Farmington, MO physician or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Farmington, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It improves your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adapt to more pronounced movements.
    2. It increases blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It improves your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that require bouncing and jumping require soft tissue compliant enough 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 perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often seen as a valiant act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Farmington, MO is a good idea for you. 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 your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Farmington, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Farmington, MO include:

Farmington, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same euphoria. The knowledgeable Farmington, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to see what our Farmington, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Occupational Therapy
    • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
Lisa Bell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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