Injury Prevention in Kirkwood, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get a shot at the next level, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Kirkwood, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an 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. 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 Kirkwood, MO people’s lives. We love activities such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Kirkwood, MO physical therapists help you return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, 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 sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Kirkwood, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Kirkwood, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive motion 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 such as softball or lacrosse players and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Kirkwood, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and one set of muscles becoming tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Kirkwood, 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, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Kirkwood, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any other providers treating you, we’ll create a personalized game plan been proven to work through 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 suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain positions necessary for their sport. Optimal posture means correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the bones of the spine, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder to achieve ideal motion health. It can also lead to:

• 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 muscle balance, flexibility, and that your spine is in its natural position.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Kirkwood, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one technique is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you have a very high activity level, 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 modest activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Kirkwood, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Kirkwood, MO injury prevention experts will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to handle more extreme positions.
  2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It enhances your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules 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 all rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new physical activity. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Kirkwood, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Kirkwood, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits 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 limit mobility such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Kirkwood, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• 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

Kirkwood, 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 exhilaration. The knowledgeable Kirkwood, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention specialists in Kirkwood, MO.