Injury Prevention in Hematite, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Hematite, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out methods 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 contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Hematite, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Hematite, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Hematite, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Hematite, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive demand 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 tennis or soccer goalies and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. 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, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Hematite, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to 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 one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, 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 experienced physical therapists in Hematite, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

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. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention experts in Hematite, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll develop a personalized game 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 with desk jobs. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in specific body positions they need to be in for their sport. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Hematite, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of 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 — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you have a very high activity level, 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, take it easy after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Hematite, MO physician or injury prevention professional may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further stabilization.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our expert Hematite, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more pronounced movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing 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 soccer that require dynamic movements require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct 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. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and evaluate 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 seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission 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 an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits 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 leagues enacted to keep participants safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Hematite, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Hematite, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Hematite, 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

Hematite, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same euphoria. The licensed Hematite, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident 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. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to discover what our Hematite, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.