Injury Prevention in Owensville, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for a shot at the next stage, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Owensville, 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 guide you through techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Owensville, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Owensville, MO physical therapists allow you to come back as fierce as ever, 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, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Owensville, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Owensville, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as raquetball or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. 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 common injuries, like rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Owensville, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three main causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Owensville, 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 numerous musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Owensville, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your physician or any additional medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll create a customized game plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. Athletes and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in specific body positions they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal movement 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 the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Owensville, 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 things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take a rest — 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 signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Owensville, MO physician or injury prevention professional may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Improve 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 experienced Owensville, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your soft tissue to handle more dramatic positions.
  2. It increases circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that include bouncing and jumping require soft tissue flexible enough to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, 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 improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often seen as a heroic act among competitors, 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, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by 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 leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules put in place to keep participants safe. 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 see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Owensville, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent 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 Owensville, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room 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 like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Owensville, 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

Owensville, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The professional Owensville, 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention professionals in Owensville, MO.