Injury Prevention in Ranken, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get a shot at the next level, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Ranken, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Ranken, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Ranken, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Ranken, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Ranken, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. 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, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Ranken, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes inescapable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can cause dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. 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 having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

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

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Ranken, 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. Neurological issues, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficiency
• Reduced balance

When you initially see our injury prevention experts in Ranken, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll create a personalized plan of attack 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 doing the same activity. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in specific body positions related to a given activity. Good posture refers to proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities 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 achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your spine is in its natural position.

Injury Prevention Best Practices in Ranken, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to reduce that risk. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will encourage 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 your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like contusions or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Ranken, MO physician or injury prevention professional may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our professional Ranken, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more extreme movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use correct technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best ways to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and evaluate how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission 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 urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Ranken, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Ranken, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as 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 soft tissue and joints active. 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 are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Ranken, 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

Ranken, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same elation. The professional Ranken, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel 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 see what our Ranken, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.