Injury Prevention in Sunset Hills, MO. Whether you play a sport and are 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 Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.
Being physically active is an essential part of many Sunset Hills, MO people’s lives. We love activities such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.
If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a nagging injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Sunset Hills, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.
Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Sunset Hills, MO
Injuries typically fall into two categories:
- Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
- Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.
Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.
What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Sunset Hills, MO
While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:
Muscle Imbalance
Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also prevents you from having optimal posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle inflexibility
- Poor muscle recruitment
- Coordination deficiency
Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Sunset Hills, MO will ensure that your muscles are at optimal proportional strength.
Movement Dysfunction
Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:
- Joint mobility restrictions
- Muscle imbalance
- Coordination deficiency
- Lessened balance
When you initially visit our injury prevention professionals in Sunset Hills, MO, we’ll discuss your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any other medical professionals involved in your care, we’ll develop a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.
Posture Dysfunction
Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Healthy posture means correct 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 compress the joints in the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain ideal motion health. It can also lead to:
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle imbalance
- Poor positioning
- Joint mobility limitations
- Poor muscle recruitment
Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.
How to Prevent Injury in Sunset Hills, 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 precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:
- Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more moderate activity level, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
- Use the right equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other required equipment in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries like cuts or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Sunset Hills, MO physician or injury prevention professional may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
- Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Sunset Hills, MO injury prevention specialists will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
- Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
- It enhances your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more extreme movements.
- It boosts blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
- It improves your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that include bouncing and jumping require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.
- Use proper 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 improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn 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 use DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to improve it.
- Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, don’t force it.
- Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often viewed as commendable among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than you would have been sitting out. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals properly and can handle a return to physical activity.
- Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. 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 see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Sunset Hills, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, 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 Senior Citizens in Sunset Hills, MO
Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.
Other services we offer in Sunset Hills, 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
Sunset Hills, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy
Suffering in injury in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The licensed Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to see what our Sunset Hills, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.