Injury Prevention in Murphy, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get a shot at the next stage, 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 happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified Murphy, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out techniques that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Murphy, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent significant health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Murphy, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Murphy, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Murphy, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. 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 and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen 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 lead to an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having good posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, 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 licensed physical therapists in Murphy, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, causing injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention experts in Murphy, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll come up with a tailored treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement health to the level you need it to to do what you love.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in certain positions related to a given activity. Healthy posture refers to 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 bones of the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and 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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in Murphy, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

• 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, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like rashes or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Murphy, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our experienced Murphy, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more drastic positions.
  2. It improves blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It increases your posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like basketball that include 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 improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn 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 capture how you move and analyze how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often seen as a valiant 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 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 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 to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that leagues enacted 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 starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Murphy, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Murphy, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 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 soft tissue and joints active. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Murphy, MO include:

• Shin Splint Treatment
• Direct Access Physical Therapy
• Gait Analysis
• Pelvic Floor Therapy
• Dry Needling Near Me
• Tendonitis Treatment
• Manual Physical Therapy
• Orthopedic Rehab Near Me
• Beginner Running Program
• Chronic Pain Treatment

Murphy, 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 joy. The licensed Murphy, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, 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. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Murphy, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.