Old Monroe, MO

Old Monroe, MO

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

Injury Prevention in Old Monroe, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Old Monroe, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Old Monroe, MO residents. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Old Monroe, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Old Monroe, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Old Monroe, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as tennis or volleyball players, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. 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, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Injury Prevention Old Monroe, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Old Monroe

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Old Monroe, 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 main causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having ideal posture, and one set of muscles becoming tired sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance can refer to inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Old Monroe, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficiency
  • Decreased balance

When you initially visit our injury prevention specialists in Old Monroe, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any other providers involved in your treatment, we’ll come up with a customized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in certain positions necessary for a given activity. Good posture refers to 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 disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to attain 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

By guiding you to good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring 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 Old Monroe, 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 precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will signal to 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 you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as cuts or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Old Monroe, MO physician or injury prevention expert may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Old Monroe, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to adapt to more extreme positions.
    2. It enhances circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
    3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

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

  • Use correct technique — In every sport, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you get be the best player you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on 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 is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for 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 aggravate a current 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 make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or starting up a new physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Old Monroe, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Old Monroe, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Old Monroe

Injury Prevention for Older Old Monroe, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for preventing falls. Other conditions like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Old Monroe, MO include:

Old Monroe, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exhilaration. The experienced Old Monroe, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to learn more about what our Old Monroe, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.

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.