Truesdale, MO

Truesdale, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Truesdale, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to spend more time being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified Truesdale, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility 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 Truesdale, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors like playing sports, biking, and more. Furthermore, keeping an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Truesdale, MO physical therapists help you return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention professionals can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, 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 lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered 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 Truesdale, 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 call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Truesdale, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  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, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

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

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot handle 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 essential to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can cause overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having good posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to insufficient muscle balance between 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 having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

Tailored injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Truesdale, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body bending in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a variety of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Truesdale, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any other providers treating you, we’ll develop a customized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who spend a lot of time in the same position. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain stances they need to be in for their sport. Optimal posture refers to proper positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the joints in the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve optimal movement health. It causes injuries through:

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

By guiding you to ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



How to Prevent Injury in Truesdale, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
  • Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries like lacerations or concussions. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Truesdale, MO physician or physical therapist may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. In your customized injury prevention program with our knowledgeable Truesdale, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more dramatic positions.
    2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for nourishing 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 an important part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like football that require dynamic movements require muscles and tendons flexible enough to incorporate and release the high levels of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • 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 learn to tackle a certain way 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 slow down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — 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 sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though playing through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could exacerbate a current injury 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, visiting an emergency room, and rehab with a physical therapist to ensure 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 leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before another season begins or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. During your physical, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a knowledgeable physical therapist in Truesdale, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

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

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Truesdale, MO

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While seniors typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Truesdale, MO include:

Truesdale, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exhilaration. The knowledgeable Truesdale, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind at ease 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 of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or call the location nearest you to see what our Truesdale, MO injury prevention specialists 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.