Injury Prevention in Fenton, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Fenton, 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 movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.
Being physically active is vitally important to many Fenton, MO residents. We love active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Fenton, 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 optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.
If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Fenton, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Fenton, MO
Injuries typically fall into two categories:
- Overuse 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 such as water polo or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
- 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, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.
Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Fenton, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under 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 key to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in an overreliance on one set of muscles, 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 poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Coordination deficits
Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Fenton, MO will bring balance to your muscles.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:
- Joint mobility restrictions
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor coordination
- Reduced balance
When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in Fenton, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll create a customized game plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement back on track.
Posture Dysfunction
Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when lying down, using the computer, or in specific poses they need to be in for a given activity. Optimal posture means correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder to reach optimal motion health. It causes injuries through:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility restrictions
- Poor muscle recruitment
Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.
Keys to Injury Prevention in Fenton, MO
All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:
- Take a rest — 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 signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more moderate activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
- Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like cuts or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Fenton, MO physician or injury prevention expert may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other methods like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
- Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our certified Fenton, 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.
- Increase flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
- It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more drastic positions.
- It enhances circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
- It increases your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that include bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.
- Use correct technique — In every sport, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you get be the best player you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
- Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, don’t force it.
- Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate an existing injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
- Play by 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 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 professional 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 physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Fenton, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, 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 for Senior Citizens in Fenton, MO
Falls in adults over 65 accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While seniors 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 Fenton, 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
Fenton, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Being injured in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The experienced Fenton, 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 at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to discover what our Fenton, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.