Injury Prevention in Labadie, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our professional Labadie, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to 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. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.
Being physically active is an essential part of many Labadie, MO people’s lives. We love activities like playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Labadie, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.
If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Labadie, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Labadie, MO
Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:
- Repetitive motion injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
- Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling 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 either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Labadie, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance in relation to other 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 lead to:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Coordination deficits
Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Labadie, MO will bring balance to your muscles.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:
- Joint mobility limitations
- Muscle imbalance
- Coordination deficiency
- Lessened balance
At our first injury prevention appointment in Labadie, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll devise a customized treatment plan been proven to work through 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 with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain stances necessary for their sport. Healthy posture means correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and 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 teaching you correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your vertebrae remain in place.
How to Prevent Injury in Labadie, 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 prepared for your intended activity:
- Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, take a break for the few hours after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
- Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like cuts or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Labadie, MO physician or injury prevention professional may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your cleats tightly offers further protection.
- Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. In your customized injury prevention program with our expert Labadie, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
- Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
- It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more forceful positions.
- It boosts blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
- It enhances your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an important part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that necessitate dynamic movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and expel the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.
- 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 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 are taught 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 slow down your movement and educate you on how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
- Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
- Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can withstand a return to physical activity.
- Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
- Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Labadie, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.
Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Labadie, MO
Falls in senior citizens accounted for over 3 million emergency room 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 cause pain like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Labadie, MO include:
- Total Knee Replacement Physical Therapy
- Vestibular Therapy
- Concussion Treatment
- Soft Tissue Mobilization
- Post Surgical Rehabilitation
- Shin Splint Treatment
- Direct Access Physical Therapy
- Gait Analysis
- Pelvic Floor Therapy
- Dry Needling Near Me
Labadie, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Being injured in something you love doing can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The knowledgeable Labadie, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to discover what our Labadie, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.