Injury Prevention in Maryknoll, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or are entering your golden years and want to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Maryknoll, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out exercises that are proven to prevent 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 Maryknoll, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Maryknoll, MO physical therapists help you return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention specialists can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, 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 just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Maryknoll, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Maryknoll, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. 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 symptom.
2. 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, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Maryknoll, 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 common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. 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 inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Maryknoll, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, causing injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention experts in Maryknoll, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll design a tailored treatment 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 with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in specific poses they need to be in for their sport. Good posture means correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it harder to achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

By helping you understand good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Injury Prevention Techniques in Maryknoll, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. 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 have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as rashes or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Maryknoll, MO physician or injury prevention professional may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — 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 knowledgeable Maryknoll, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Boost flexibility — Stretching achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more drastic positions.
  2. It increases circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like basketball that necessitate bouncing and jumping 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 a certain way to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately 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 gutting it out through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals properly and can withstand a return to physical activity.
• Play by 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 bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Maryknoll, MO is something you should consider. 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 how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Maryknoll, MO Adults

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Maryknoll, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• 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

Maryknoll, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exhilaration. The experienced Maryknoll, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind at ease that you do not have to fear going back to what you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Maryknoll, MO.