Injury Prevention in Old Jamestown, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Old Jamestown, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you exercises 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.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Old Jamestown, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Old Jamestown, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Old Jamestown, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Old Jamestown, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or quarterbacks, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
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, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like 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 Old Jamestown, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Old Jamestown, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

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. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Reduced balance

When you first see our injury prevention specialists in Old Jamestown, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll develop a tailored plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in specific positions related to their sport. Healthy posture means proper positioning when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within 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 achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

• 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 is not jeopardized, and your spine is in its natural position.

Injury Prevention Techniques in Old Jamestown, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. 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 moderate activity level, take a break after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries like rashes or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Old Jamestown, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our certified Old Jamestown, 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 want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more forceful movements.
  2. It increases blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  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 soccer that include dynamic motions require muscles and tendons flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted 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 are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
• 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 sudden pain, stop immediately 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 gutting it out through pain is often seen as a heroic act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• 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 helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted 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 licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Old Jamestown, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Old Jamestown, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Old Jamestown, MO include:

• 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
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

Old Jamestown, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The experienced Old Jamestown, 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to see what our Old Jamestown, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.