Injury Prevention in Preston Woods, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, 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 activities you love. While our certified Preston Woods, 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 exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location nearest you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Preston Woods, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Preston Woods, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are customized for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Preston Woods, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Preston Woods, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen in an instant. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, 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.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Preston Woods, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one muscle group, 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 likelihood of injury. Injuries can be caused by 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. Symptoms include:

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

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Preston Woods, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Lessened balance

When you first see our injury prevention professionals in Preston Woods, MO, we’ll discuss 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 come up with 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 sit a lot. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in specific poses they need to be in for their sport. Correct posture means correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, 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 limitations
• Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you good 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 vertebrae remain in place.

How to Prevent Injury in Preston Woods, MO

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

• 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 encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries like contusions or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Preston Woods, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Preston Woods, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to handle more extreme movements.
  2. It increases blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like basketball that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to incorporate and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best player you can be 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 utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that guts it out 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 what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules that were adopted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Preston Woods, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Preston Woods, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Preston Woods, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• 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

Preston Woods, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The licensed Preston Woods, 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 can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling 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 start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in Preston Woods, MO.