Injury Prevention in St. George, MO. Whether you’re an athlete trying to get an opportunity at the next level, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional St. George, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to guide you through measures 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 vitally important to many St. George, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems such as 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 St. George, MO physical therapists help you come back 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, for both recovery and injury prevention, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.
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 St. George, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.
Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in St. George, MO
Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:
- Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
- Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. 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, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in St. George, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally happen because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, 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 poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Coordination deficiency
Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in St. George, MO will bring balance to your muscles.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:
- Joint mobility limitations
- Muscle imbalance
- Coordination deficits
- Lessened balance
At our first injury prevention appointment in St. George, MO, we’ll discuss your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, together with your doctor or any additional providers treating you, we’ll develop a personalized treatment plan 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 sit a lot. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in specific poses they need to be in for a given activity. Correct posture refers to proper positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach ideal movement health. It causes injuries through:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility restrictions
- Poor muscle recruitment
By guiding you to correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.
How to Prevent Injury in St. George, MO
All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof 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 have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
- Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like cuts or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your St. George, MO doctor or physical therapist may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
- Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our St. George, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
- Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
- It increases your range of motion, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more dramatic movements.
- It improves blood flow, which carries protein-rich blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to recover.
- It enhances your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.
According to research, sports like basketball that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough 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 accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and evaluate how to both improve your performance and prevent injury.
- Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
- Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage 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 severity of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions 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 targeting in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
- Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or starting up a new physical activity. During your physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in St. George, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.
Injury Prevention for The Elderly in St. George, MO
Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by 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 can greatly aid in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in St. George, MO include:
- Total Knee Replacement Physical Therapy
- Vestibular Therapy
- Concussion Treatment
- Soft Tissue Mobilization
- Post Surgical Rehabilitation
- Shin Splint Treatment
- Direct Access Physical Therapy
- Gait Analysis
- Pelvic Floor Therapy
- Dry Needling Near Me
St. George, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Suffering in injury in something you love doing causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exultation. The knowledgeable St. George, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own 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. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention specialists in St. George, MO.