Injury Prevention in New Melle, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get a shot at the next stage, or you just retired and want to spend more time being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our professional New Melle, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many New Melle, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed New Melle, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help keep you active 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 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 won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in New Melle, 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 today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in New Melle, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Wear-and-tear 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 indicator.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in New Melle, 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 primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, 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 inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in New Melle, 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 moving in unnatural ways, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention experts in New Melle, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll come up with a customized plan of attack based on empirically-backed 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. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, using the computer, or in certain body positions necessary for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to correct positioning when both static and moving in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve 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 teaching you ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

How to Prevent Injury in New Melle, 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 — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. 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 processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like rashes or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your New Melle, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our knowledgeable New Melle, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
• Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It enhances your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more pronounced positions.
  2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
  3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that include dynamic movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and analyze how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and rehab with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in New Melle, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, 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 The Elderly in New Melle, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in New Melle, 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

New Melle, 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 keeps us from experiencing the same exhilaration. The professional New Melle, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in New Melle, MO.