Injury Prevention in Hematite, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for an opportunity at the next level, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Hematite, 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 teach out exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Hematite, MO people’s lives. We love activities like playing sports, swimming, and more. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Hematite, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury 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 personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Hematite, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Hematite, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes such as water polo or basketball players and commonly manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Hematite, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in dependency on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Customized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Hematite, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability 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 restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Decreased balance

When you first visit our injury prevention experts in Hematite, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll come up with a personalized game plan been proven to work by 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 resting, sitting, or in specific positions necessary for their sport. Optimal posture refers to proper alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the vertebrae, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Injury Prevention Methods in Hematite, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. 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, 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, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Hematite, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Hematite, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching 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 dramatic movements.
  2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It increases your posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, 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 educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Hematite, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Hematite, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain 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 soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Hematite, MO include:

• Shin Splint Treatment
• Direct Access Physical Therapy
• Gait Analysis
• Pelvic Floor Therapy
• Dry Needling Near Me
• Tendonitis Treatment
• Manual Physical Therapy
• Orthopedic Rehab Near Me
• Beginner Running Program
• Chronic Pain Treatment

Hematite, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The knowledgeable Hematite, 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Hematite, MO.