Horine, MO

Horine, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury keep you from the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Horine, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. 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 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 reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Horine, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions 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 Horine, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, 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 healing from and preventing injury, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Horine, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Horine, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. 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 of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention Horine, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Horine

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Horine, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are inescapable, they generally happen 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 common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

Customized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Horine, 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, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficits
  • Lessened balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Horine, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll design a personalized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to the level you need it to to do what you love.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in specific poses necessary for their sport. Correct posture means proper alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

By guiding you to good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your spine is in its natural position.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Horine, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to reduce that risk. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, 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 modest activity level, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, shin guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like rashes or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Horine, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly offers further protection.
  • 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 Horine, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to handle more dramatic positions.
    2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
    3. It enhances your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an important part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like soccer that include dynamic movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • 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 perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to improve it.
  • 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 is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often viewed as commendable among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate an existing injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. 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 rehab with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle a return to physical activity.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all 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.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Horine, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven 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 Horine, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Horine

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Horine, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Horine, MO include:

Horine, 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 freedom. The knowledgeable 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 do not have to fear going back to what you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to find out more about what our Horine, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Advanced Work Rehabilitation
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy/Concussion Management
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Mary McKinney
Front Office
Kaila Mikesch
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Eric Meyer
Assistant Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Ernie Goddard
Partner, PT
Natalie Carter
PT, DPT, Astym. Cert.
Emma Witte
PTA, ASTYM Cert.
Kelly Barnes
Physical Therapist
Jennifer Zweigart
Front Office
Shannon Blum
PTA, ATC

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.