Injury Prevention in Hillsboro, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Hillsboro, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Hillsboro, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, biking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Hillsboro, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Hillsboro, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Hillsboro, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Chronic 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 athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

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

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally happen 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 main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to 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. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Hillsboro, 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. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

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

When you first see our injury prevention specialists in Hillsboro, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your physician or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll design a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

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 have postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific poses related to a given activity. Good posture means correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it challenging to achieve 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 the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

How to Prevent Injury in Hillsboro, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. No one technique is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as contusions or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Hillsboro, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Hillsboro, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your soft tissue to handle more pronounced movements.
  2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like basketball that include dynamic motions require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use accepted 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 with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a head injury, 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 analyze how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines 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, visiting your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• 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 targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers 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.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your appointment, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Hillsboro, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Hillsboro, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Hillsboro, 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

Hillsboro, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The licensed Hillsboro, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Hillsboro, MO.