Injury Prevention in Mackenzie, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get an opportunity at the next level, 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 activities you love. While our professional Mackenzie, 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 measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Mackenzie, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of significant health problems including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Mackenzie, MO physical therapists help you come back even stronger after an injury, 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, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Mackenzie, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Mackenzie, 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 tennis or quarterbacks, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

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

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Mackenzie, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to 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 prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor 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 not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficiency

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

When you first see our injury prevention experts in Mackenzie, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll create a personalized game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time in the same position. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain stances related to a given activity. Optimal posture means correct alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it difficult to 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 guiding you to ideal 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 Mackenzie, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as rashes or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Mackenzie, MO physician or injury prevention professional may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Boost muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our licensed Mackenzie, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to handle more extreme positions.
  2. It increases blood flow, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like soccer that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules put in place 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 licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Mackenzie, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Mackenzie, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While seniors 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 Mackenzie, MO include:

• Shoulder Pain
• Mobility
• Knee Injury
• Joint Pain
• Sciatica
• Dry Needling
• ACL Tear
• Pain Management
• Rotator Cuff Tear

Mackenzie, 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 elation. The experienced Mackenzie, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Mackenzie, MO.