Injury Prevention in Peerless Park, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Peerless Park, 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 exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Peerless Park, MO residents. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Peerless Park, MO physical therapists help you 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 proven to be effective and are customized for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Peerless Park, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Peerless Park, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as raquetball or lacrosse players and typically reveal themselves with joint pain.
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, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Peerless Park, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are inescapable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance between 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
• Poor coordination

Personalized injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Peerless Park, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention specialists in Peerless Park, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll design a tailored game plan been proven to work by 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 at lest, using the computer, or in certain poses related to their sport. Optimal posture means correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it harder to reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

By helping you understand ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

How to Prevent Injury in Peerless Park, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — 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’re moderately active, take a break after activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries like bruises or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Peerless Park, MO doctor or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Peerless Park, MO injury prevention professionals will work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more pronounced movements.
  2. It improves circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like soccer that necessitate bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to store and expel the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• 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 perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. 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 valiant act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate a current injury and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can withstand a return to physical activity.
• Follow the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Peerless Park, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven 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 which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Peerless Park, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be effectively managed with 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, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Peerless Park, 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

Peerless Park, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same elation. The professional Peerless Park, 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 do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to discover what our Peerless Park, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.