Labarque Creek, MO

Labarque Creek, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Labarque Creek, 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 body’s current condition and how you move to show you exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Labarque Creek, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of significant health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Labarque Creek, MO physical therapists allow you to come back 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 treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Labarque Creek, 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 call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Labarque Creek, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as raquetball or volleyball players and typically are accompanied by joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention Labarque Creek, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Labarque Creek

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes 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 crucial to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become tired more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

Tailored injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Labarque Creek, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in Labarque Creek, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your physician or any other providers involved in your care, we’ll develop a personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in specific positions necessary for their sport. Correct posture refers to proper alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it difficult to achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

By helping you understand correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Labarque Creek, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. 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 in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, 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’re moderately active, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Labarque Creek, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Labarque Creek, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. 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 adjust to more pronounced positions.
    2. It improves blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, removing 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 studies, sports like soccer that include bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — In every sport, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a head injury, 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.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, forcing your body to perform 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 the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals naturally and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Labarque Creek, 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 your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Labarque Creek, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Labarque Creek

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Labarque Creek, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Labarque Creek, MO include:

Labarque Creek, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same elation. The licensed Labarque Creek, 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 confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to learn more about what our Labarque Creek, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.