Injury Prevention in St. Ann, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for an opportunity at the next level, or you just retired and want to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified St. Ann, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out measures 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 contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many St. Ann, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed St. Ann, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, 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 developed uniquely for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in St. Ann, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in St. Ann, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. 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 St. Ann, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen 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 crucial to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having ideal 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 inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in St. Ann, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in St. Ann, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll develop a customized game plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

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 at lest, using the computer, or in certain body positions necessary for a given activity. Healthy posture refers to proper alignments when both static and moving in a way that keeps the spine within 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 achieve optimal motion health. Symptoms include:

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

By helping you understand good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your spine is in its natural position.

Injury Prevention Techniques in St. Ann, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. 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 desired activity level:

• 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 allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use the correct equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your St. Ann, MO doctor or physical therapist may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our knowledgeable St. Ann, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more pronounced movements.
  2. It improves blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
  3. It encourages good posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like football that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities 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 get be the best player you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to both be a better athlete and reduce your risk of injury.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately stop all physical activity and seek proportional medical care. 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 gritting through pain is often seen as commendable among competitors, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate a current injury and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted 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 always advisable to get a physical before a new season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in St. Ann, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older St. Ann, MO Adults

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for over 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions 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 healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in St. Ann, 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

St. Ann, 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 won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The professional St. Ann, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident 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 once valued so much. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to find out more about what our St. Ann, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.