Injury Prevention in Huntleigh, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified Huntleigh, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques 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.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Huntleigh, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Huntleigh, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists 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, have been prove to work 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 just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Huntleigh, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Huntleigh, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Wear-and-tear 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 baseball or quarterbacks, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Huntleigh, 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 maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to 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 one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to insufficient 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 Huntleigh, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

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. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficiency
• Lessened balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Huntleigh, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other providers involved in your care, we’ll create a tailored plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain poses they need to be in for their sport. Good posture refers to 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 bones of the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve 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.

How to Prevent Injury in Huntleigh, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Huntleigh, MO physician or injury prevention specialist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our licensed Huntleigh, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more dramatic movements.
  2. It increases circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require dynamic activities require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to store and release the high amount of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use proper 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 help you perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and evaluate how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Huntleigh, MO is a good idea for you. 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 how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older Huntleigh, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults 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 Huntleigh, 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

Huntleigh, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The knowledgeable Huntleigh, 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 at ease that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to discover what our Huntleigh, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.