Injury Prevention in Saint Paul, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for a shot at the next stage, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Saint Paul, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from 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 Saint Paul, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, swimming, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Saint Paul, MO physical therapists allow you to come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, 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 sustained 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 Saint Paul, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Saint Paul, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or basketball players, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like 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 Saint Paul, MO

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

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance can refer to inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or in the same muscle group, 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
• Coordination deficits

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Saint Paul, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Saint Paul, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll come up with a customized plan of attack been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time in the same position. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when resting, driving, or in certain poses necessary for their sport. Optimal posture refers to proper positioning when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain optimal motion health. It causes injuries through:

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

By helping you understand the best practices for 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.

How to Prevent Injury in Saint Paul, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like rashes or head injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Saint Paul, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other techniques like tying your cleats tightly offers further stabilization.
• Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our certified Saint Paul, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury 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 soft tissue to adapt to more pronounced movements.
  2. It improves circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that require dynamic activities require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use proper technique — In every physical activity, there are accepted techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid 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 break down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is sore, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often viewed as a heroic act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate 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 what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Play by 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 leading with the helmet 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 there are penalties for them.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Saint Paul, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Saint Paul, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by 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, appropriate strength, stability, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Saint Paul, 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

Saint Paul, 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 keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The licensed Saint Paul, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or call the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Saint Paul, MO.