Troy, MO

Troy, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Troy, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Troy, 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 show you measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Troy, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Troy, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

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 most convenient for you in Troy, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Troy, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as water polo or quarterbacks and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as 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.

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

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, they generally occur 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 essential to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to an overreliance on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor 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 poor 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:

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Troy, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

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, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Troy, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll design a personalized treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. Athletes and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain poses necessary for a given activity. Good posture refers to proper alignments 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 compact the vertebrae, which disrupts our body’s internal communications and makes it challenging to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

By helping you understand ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your vertebrae remain in place.



How to Prevent Injury in Troy, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • 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 encourage 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 you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Use protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like contusions or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Troy, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other methods like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further stabilization.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. Our Troy, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to be able to avoid injury in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It enhances your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adjust to more extreme movements.
    2. It improves blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
    3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like basketball that include dynamic movements require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training 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. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though gutting it out through pain is often seen as a heroic act among competitors, 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 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 your doctor, and rehab with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Follow 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 coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that leagues enacted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your physical, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Troy, MO is something you should consider. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Troy, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of 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 muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Troy, MO include:

Troy, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same euphoria. The licensed Troy, 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. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to find out more about what our Troy, MO injury prevention professionals can do for you.

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
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy, McKenzie
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Sara Crain
PT, CEAS, Astym Cert.
Julie Freiner
OTR/L, CHT
Samantha Bixby
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Farren Holman
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Matt Williams
MS, OTR/L, ATC/L, CHT
Jeff Hunter
Clinic Director, PT, Cert. MDT, MBA
Bailey Zimmermann
Front Office Supervisor
Amanda Reynolds
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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