Injury Prevention in Sherman, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next level, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Sherman, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Sherman, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of significant health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Sherman, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are personalized to 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 most convenient for you in Sherman, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Sherman, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, 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, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

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

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability 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 staving off injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having good posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by inadequate 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. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

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

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Sherman, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, causing injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Reduced balance

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Sherman, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll devise a personalized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in specific positions related to a given activity. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the vertebrae, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it difficult to achieve ideal motion health. It causes injuries through:

• 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 muscle balance, range of motion, and that your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Sherman, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, 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, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries like contusions or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Sherman, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your cleats tightly offers further protection.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our professional Sherman, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more pronounced positions.
  2. It enhances blood flow, which carries protein-rich blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like football that require sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons flexible enough to store and release the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use proper technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid 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 slow down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
• 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 a sudden pop or grinding sensation, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though gutting it out through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse 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, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before a new season or starting up a new physical activity. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Sherman, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Sherman, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for over 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Sherman, MO include:

• Shin Splint Treatment
• Direct Access Physical Therapy
• Gait Analysis
• Pelvic Floor Therapy
• Dry Needling Near Me
• Tendonitis Treatment
• Manual Physical Therapy
• Orthopedic Rehab Near Me
• Beginner Running Program
• Chronic Pain Treatment

Sherman, 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 knowledgeable Sherman, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a 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 that you do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in Sherman, MO.