Injury Prevention in Parkway, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Parkway, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out measures that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Parkway, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, playing golf, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Parkway, MO physical therapists help you come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Parkway, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Parkway, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as softball or volleyball players and typically reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Parkway, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, 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 primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and preventing 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 can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Parkway, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

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

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

When you first visit our injury prevention professionals in Parkway, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any other providers involved in your care, we’ll develop a tailored 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 who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain poses they need to be in for a given activity. Good posture refers to correct alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the bones of the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it challenging to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility limitations
• Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Injury Prevention Techniques in Parkway, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. No one precaution is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you have a very high activity level, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more modest activity level, take a break after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like lacerations or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Parkway, MO physician or injury prevention expert may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our experienced Parkway, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more extreme positions.
  2. It boosts circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
  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 necessitate sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and expel the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. 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 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 utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in 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 soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, 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 — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that leagues enacted 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 always advisable to have a medical evaluation before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Parkway, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Parkway, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Parkway, 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

Parkway, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The knowledgeable Parkway, 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. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Parkway, MO.