Injury Prevention in High Ridge, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed High Ridge, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make 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 High Ridge, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed High Ridge, MO physical therapists help you return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. 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 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 High Ridge, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in High Ridge, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Chronic injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as softball or lacrosse players 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, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in High Ridge, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes inescapable, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and staving off 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 can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can result in:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in High Ridge, 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 lead to:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in High Ridge, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your physician or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll develop a customized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain stances related to a given activity. Correct posture means correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal motion health. Symptoms include:

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

By helping you understand ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your spine is in its natural position.

Keys to Injury Prevention in High Ridge, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. 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’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’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your High Ridge, MO physician or injury prevention expert may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — 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 certified High Ridge, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more forceful movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that require sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough to store and expel the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training 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 player you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and analyze how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions 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 in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in High Ridge, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in High Ridge, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in High Ridge, 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

High Ridge, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The experienced High Ridge, 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 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 of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or call the location nearest you to learn more about what our High Ridge, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.