Shrewsbury, MO

Shrewsbury, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Shrewsbury, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or are entering your golden years and want to dedicate your time to bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Shrewsbury, 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 guide you through exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Shrewsbury, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, swimming, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Shrewsbury, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury 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 personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

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 nearest you in Shrewsbury, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Shrewsbury, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

  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 are required to repeat throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

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

Injury Prevention Shrewsbury, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Shrewsbury

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

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

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can result in an overreliance on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

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

Movement Dysfunction

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

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

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Shrewsbury, MO, we’ll go through your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other providers involved in your care, we’ll develop a personalized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to the level you need it to to do what you love.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture means correct positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it difficult to attain optimal motion health. It can also lead to:

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

By guiding you to good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



Injury Prevention Best Practices in Shrewsbury, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are several steps you can take to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

  • Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. 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 processes. 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.
  • Use the right equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like rashes or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Shrewsbury, MO doctor or injury prevention specialist may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Improve muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. Our Shrewsbury, MO injury prevention experts will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
  • Improve flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more drastic positions.
    2. It enhances blood flow, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
    3. It improves your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to research, sports like football that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use accepted 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 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 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 capture how you move and educate you on how to both be a better athlete and prevent injury.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often viewed as a valiant act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate a current injury and put you out of commission for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals properly and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep participants safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your appointment, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Shrewsbury, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Shrewsbury, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Shrewsbury

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Shrewsbury, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Shrewsbury, MO include:

Shrewsbury, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The licensed Shrewsbury, 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 at ease that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Shrewsbury, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy (Coming Early 2024)
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Running Gait Analysis with DorsaVi (Coming Soon October 2023
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Zac Schniers
PT, DPT, CMPT
Ashley Kraus
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.