Injury Prevention in Otto, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for a shot at the next level, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Otto, 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 body’s current condition and how you move to teach out methods that are proven to prevent injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Otto, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, playing golf, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Otto, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. 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 activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Otto, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Otto, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Overuse 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 manifest themselves as joint pain.
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, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Otto, 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 crucial to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having ideal posture, and the weaker muscles will become tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor 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:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Otto, 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, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Otto, MO, we’ll evaluate 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 personalized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time in the same position. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific body positions necessary for a given activity. Optimal posture refers to proper alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the joints in the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach 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 necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Otto, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one precaution is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

• Take a rest — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will allow 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, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like contusions or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Otto, MO physician or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our Otto, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Boost flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It enhances your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to adjust to more drastic movements.
  2. It enhances blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like football that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow 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 bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous 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 soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals properly and can handle a return to physical activity.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence 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.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your appointment, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Otto, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Otto, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Otto, MO include:

• Shin Splint Treatment
• Direct Access Physical Therapy
• Gait Analysis
• Pelvic Floor Therapy
• Dry Needling Near Me
• Tendonitis Treatment
• Manual Physical Therapy
• Orthopedic Rehab Near Me
• Beginner Running Program
• Chronic Pain Treatment

Otto, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same euphoria. The licensed Otto, 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 confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel 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 get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Otto, MO.