Injury Prevention Knob Lick, MO

Injury Prevention in Knob Lick, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Knob Lick, 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 show you exercises that are proven to prevent injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Knob Lick, MO residents. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, swimming, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Knob Lick, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help keep you active by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Knob Lick, 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 at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Knob Lick, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

Chronic injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Knob Lick, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Knob Lick

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Knob Lick, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance 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 maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in an overreliance on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, 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
Coordination deficits

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Knob Lick, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

Joint mobility restrictions
Muscle imbalance
Poor coordination
Decreased balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Knob Lick, 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 additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll devise a tailored 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 with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in certain poses they need to be in for a given activity. Healthy posture refers to proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve ideal movement health. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in Knob Lick, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective 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’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break for the few hours after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as contusions or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Knob Lick, MO physician or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our Knob Lick, 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 critical things for injury prevention:
1. It increases your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more pronounced movements.
2. It enhances blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.
According to studies, sports like basketball that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to store and exert the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.
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 get be the best player you can be but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
Listen to your body — 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, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate a current injury and put you out of commission 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, seeing urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
Play by 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 helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Knob Lick, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Knob Lick, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Knob Lick

Injury Prevention for Older Knob Lick, MO Adults

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 preventing falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Knob Lick, MO include:

Knob Lick, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The knowledgeable Knob Lick, 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 of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Knob Lick, MO.