Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Labarque Creek, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to prevent injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Labarque Creek, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Labarque Creek, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Labarque Creek, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Labarque Creek, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse 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 athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, 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, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur 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 essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity 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. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Labarque Creek, 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. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Labarque Creek, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other providers involved in your treatment, we’ll develop a tailored game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain body positions related to their sport. Healthy posture means proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the vertebrae, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is prepared for your intended activity:

• Take a rest — 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 encourage your body to engage in its natural healing processes. 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.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Labarque Creek, MO physician or injury prevention professional may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Labarque Creek, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Increase 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 the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more forceful movements.
  2. It increases blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that include sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. 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 are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse 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 urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can withstand the activity you want to return to.
• Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place 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 licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Labarque Creek, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have 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 Senior Citizens in Labarque Creek, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as 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, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Labarque Creek, MO include:

• 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
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

Labarque Creek, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The licensed Labarque Creek, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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 that you once valued so much. Request an appointment online or call the location nearest you to see what our Labarque Creek, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.