Hawk Point, MO

Hawk Point, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Hawk Point, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Hawk Point, 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 movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you exercises 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 reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Hawk Point, MO people’s lives. We love activities such as playing sports, swimming, and more. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Hawk Point, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are customized for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Hawk Point, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures 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 Hawk Point, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as water polo or basketball players and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Hawk Point, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Hawk Point

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Hawk Point, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally occur 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 common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing 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 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 in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Hawk Point, 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, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention specialists in Hawk Point, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a tailored treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time in the same position. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific body positions related to their sport. Correct posture means correct positioning when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

By teaching you the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.



Injury Prevention Methods in Hawk Point, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do 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 signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. 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.
  • Use the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Hawk Point, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our knowledgeable Hawk Point, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more drastic movements.
    2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
    3. It enhances your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to store and release the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use proper technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow 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 withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals naturally and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
  • 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 leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Hawk Point, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Hawk Point, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Hawk Point

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Hawk Point, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed 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, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Hawk Point, MO include:

Hawk Point, 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 professional Hawk Point, 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 do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Hawk Point, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.

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

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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