Injury Prevention in Sunset Hills, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for a shot 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 licensed Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system 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. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Sunset Hills, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off significant health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Sunset Hills, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Sunset Hills, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Repetitive motion 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 and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

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

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Sunset Hills, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, 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 maintaining healthy joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one muscle group, 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 inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, 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
• Poor coordination

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

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, causing injury. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Decreased balance

When you first visit our injury prevention professionals in Sunset Hills, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your doctor or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll design a personalized game 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 others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain body positions related to a given activity. Optimal posture means proper positioning of your body from your head to your toes in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the joints in the spine, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal movement health. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, 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 things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Sunset Hills, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our professional Sunset Hills, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Boost flexibility — Increasing your flexibility accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more forceful movements.
  2. 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.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like soccer that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. 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 by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• 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 sudden pain, stop immediately and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though gritting through pain is often viewed as commendable among competitors, playing 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 what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing 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 helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence 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.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before a new 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 Sunset Hills, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Sunset Hills, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as 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 soft tissue and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and ideal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Sunset Hills, MO include:

• 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
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

Sunset Hills, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The knowledgeable 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 confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention professionals in Sunset Hills, MO.