New Melle, MO

New Melle, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in New Melle, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. 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 body’s current condition and how you move to teach out techniques 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 contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many New Melle, MO residents. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, hiking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed New Melle, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in New Melle, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in New Melle, MO

Injuries generally 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 are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and typically are accompanied by joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, 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, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention New Melle, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near New Melle

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in New Melle, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes unpreventable, 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 essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for 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 one set of muscles becoming tired sooner, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to poor 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. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in New Melle, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll devise a tailored game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in specific stances they need to be in for their sport. Healthy posture refers to correct positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities 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 your nervous system and makes it difficult to achieve ideal motion health. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.



Injury Prevention Methods in New Melle, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to reduce that risk. 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 strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to 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 muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Use protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other required equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your New Melle, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our certified New Melle, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Improve flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It enhances your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to handle more extreme movements.
    2. It increases blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
    3. It improves your posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

    According to research, sports like basketball that necessitate sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to store and expel the high levels of energy required. 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 techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
  • 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 a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals naturally and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Follow 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 targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your appointment, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert 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 your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention New Melle, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near New Melle

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in New Melle, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with 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 proper posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in New Melle, MO include:

New Melle, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same joy. The knowledgeable New Melle, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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 that you do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in New Melle, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy, McKenzie
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Sara Crain
PT, CEAS, Astym Cert.
Julie Freiner
OTR/L, CHT
Samantha Bixby
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Farren Holman
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Matt Williams
MS, OTR/L, ATC/L, CHT
Jeff Hunter
Clinic Director, PT, Cert. MDT, MBA
Bailey Zimmermann
Front Office Supervisor
Amanda Reynolds
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.