Injury Prevention in Matson, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified Matson, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.
Physical activity is an essential part of many Matson, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Matson, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists 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, 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 most convenient for you in Matson, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.
Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Matson, MO
Injuries typically fall into two categories:
- Repetitive motion injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
- Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.
Some common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Matson, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally occur because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance applies 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 not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Poor coordination
Customized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Matson, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:
- Joint mobility limitations
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor coordination
- Lessened balance
When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in Matson, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers treating you, we’ll design a customized plan of attack been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.
Posture Dysfunction
Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in specific poses they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture means proper alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to reach ideal motion health. Symptoms include:
- 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 you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.
How to Prevent Injury in Matson, 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 desired activity level:
- 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 encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
- Use protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other required equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Matson, MO physician or injury prevention expert may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
- Increase muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our Matson, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
- Increase flexibility — Stretching achieves three important things for injury prevention:
- It enhances your range of motion, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more dramatic positions.
- It improves blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
- It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue 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 correct technique — In every sport, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on 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 a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous training session, don’t force it.
- Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often seen as a heroic act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and leave you on the sidelines for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
- Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all 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.
- Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Matson, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.
Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Matson, MO
Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for preventing 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 healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Matson, 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
Matson, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The licensed Matson, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Matson, MO.