Injury Prevention in Horine, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our licensed Horine, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Horine, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Horine, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are customized for 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 nearest you in Horine, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Horine, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as raquetball or volleyball players and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Horine, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one set of muscles, 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 probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor 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 result in:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficits

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Horine, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in Horine, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll create a tailored treatment plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in specific stances necessary for a given activity. Healthy posture means proper positioning when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to achieve ideal motion health. It causes injuries through:

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

By teaching you good 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.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Horine, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is prepared for your intended activity:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more moderate activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as bruises or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Horine, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your cleats tightly offers further protection.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Horine, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more drastic positions.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as you read earlier, is an important part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use accepted 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 improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. 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 rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, 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 — Even though playing through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines 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.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Horine, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Horine, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Horine, 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

Horine, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same joy. The professional Horine, 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to learn more about what our Horine, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.