O’Fallon, MO

O’Fallon, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury keep you from the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in O’Fallon, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed O’Fallon, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out methods that are proven to prevent injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many O’Fallon, MO people’s lives. We love activities like playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed O’Fallon, MO physical therapists help you come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

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 most convenient for you in O’Fallon, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in O’Fallon, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, 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, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention O'Fallon, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near O'Fallon

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in O’Fallon, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes inescapable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause dependency on one muscle group, 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. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

Personalized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in O’Fallon, 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, causing injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficiency
  • Lessened balance

When you first visit our injury prevention specialists in O’Fallon, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll devise a personalized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Healthy posture means correct positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your vertebrae remain in place.



Injury Prevention Best Practices in O’Fallon, 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 precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Use the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other recommended equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries like cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your O’Fallon, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our certified O’Fallon, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adjust to more extreme positions.
    2. It boosts circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
    3. 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 flexible enough to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate an existing injury and leave you off the field or court 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 your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules put in place 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 in your best interest to see a doctor before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in O’Fallon, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention O'Fallon, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near O'Fallon

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in O’Fallon, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints active. While the physical demands for older adults 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 O’Fallon, MO include:

O’Fallon, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The licensed O’Fallon, 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 do not have to fear going back to what 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 call the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in O’Fallon, 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 Coming Soon
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Sara Crain
PT, CEAS, Astym Cert.
Julie Freiner
OTR/L, CHT
Matt Williams
MS, OTR/L, ATC/L, CHT
Brian Freund
Partner, DPT, CMPT, TPS, MBA
Kaysie Cope
Front Office
Lauren Vaughn
PT, DPT, CMPT, Astym Cert.
Kelly Thornton
Clinic Director, PT, DPT
Justin Bridwell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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