Park Hills, MO

Park Hills, MO

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

Injury Prevention in Park Hills, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified Park Hills, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to 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 exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Park Hills, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off future health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Park Hills, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, 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 treatment plans, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Park Hills, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Park Hills, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

  1. Chronic 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 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 falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as 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.

Injury Prevention Park Hills, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Park Hills

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Park Hills, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are unpreventable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on 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 more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

Personalized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Park Hills, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor coordination
  • Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Park Hills, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your physician 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 who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific stances related to a given activity. Optimal posture refers to correct positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it challenging to attain 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

By helping you understand correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



How to Prevent Injury in Park Hills, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is prepared for your intended activity:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like rashes or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Park Hills, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Park Hills, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adapt to more extreme positions.
    2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
    3. It increases your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an important part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons flexible enough to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use correct technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, 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 nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all 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 licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Park Hills, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention Park Hills, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Park Hills

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Park Hills, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Park Hills, MO include:

Park Hills, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The experienced Park Hills, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a 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 that you once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to learn more about what our Park Hills, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Occupational Therapy
    • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
Lisa Bell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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