Twin Oaks, MO

Twin Oaks, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Twin Oaks, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified Twin Oaks, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Twin Oaks, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Twin Oaks, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action 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 treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Twin Oaks, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Twin Oaks, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or volleyball players, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. 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, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Injury Prevention Twin Oaks, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Twin Oaks

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Twin Oaks, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Symptoms include:

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Twin Oaks, 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. It can be caused by numerous musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Twin Oaks, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll come up with a tailored plan of attack been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in certain stances related to their sport. Optimal posture refers to correct 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 compress the joints in the spine, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to attain ideal motion health. It can also lead to:

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

By helping you understand the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



Injury Prevention Techniques in Twin Oaks, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. No one safety tip is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions 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, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more modest activity level, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear the correct equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries like rashes or head injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or muscle, tendon, or ligament, your Twin Oaks, MO doctor or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Twin Oaks, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
  • Increase flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It enhances which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your soft tissue to handle more pronounced movements.
    2. It enhances blood flow, which allows for protein-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and reinvigorating the muscles.
    3. It enhances your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that include sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use correct 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 help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order 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 utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
  • 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 a sudden pop or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to 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 leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. 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 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 help prevent 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 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.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Twin Oaks, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven 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 Twin Oaks, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Twin Oaks

Injury Prevention for Older Twin Oaks, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints healthy. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Twin Oaks, MO include:

Twin Oaks, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exultation. The professional Twin Oaks, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you once valued so much. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in Twin Oaks, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Occupational Therapy
    • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Women's Health Therapy - Pelvic Floor
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTYM)
  • Spine Specialty – Manual Therapy Certified
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Sara Crain
PT, CEAS, Astym Cert.
Lauren Cavanaugh
Front Office Supervisor
Amanda Long
DPT, CMPT, ATC
Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Brian Wahlig
Front Office Supervisor
Sarah Schroeder
MOTR/L, CHT, Astym Cert
Bill Franzen
Partner, PT, MHSPT
Kinsey Jackson
Front Office
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Mary McKinney
Front Office
Brian Little
Front Office Supervisor
Zac Schniers
PT, DPT, CMPT
Danielle O’Rando
Front Office
Natasha Burtchett
Front Office Supervisor
Antoinette Ghoston
Front Office
Ashley Kraus
Front Office
Helen Ziegler
Front Office
Addie Kersting
Front Office Supervisor
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Katee Strunk
Front Office Team Lead
Mark Smith
PT, DPT, CMPT
Kaila Mikesch
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Ali Bauer
PT, CMPT
Brandi Arndt
MPT, CMPT
Julie Freiner
OTR/L, CHT
Samantha Bixby
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Eric Meyer
Assistant Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Brittany Stapp
Front Office Supervisor
Mitchell Hammack
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Farren Holman
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Jodi Bielicke
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, ASTYM Cert.
Sara Dowil
OTR/L, CHT
Mike Faris
Clinic Director, PT, CMPT
Emily Helton
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Mandy Carter
MSPT, CMPT, ATC, CWC
Matt Williams
MS, OTR/L, ATC/L, CHT
Ray Bauer
Clinic Director, MSPT, CMPT
Brett Shelton
PT, DPT, OCS, COMT, CSMT
Candace Cunningham
Clinic Director, PT, DPT
Jeff Hunter
Clinic Director, PT, Cert. MDT, MBA
Scott Gallant
PT, FAAOMPT, BDN
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Greg Nicholas
Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
John Teepe
Partner, MPT
Ernie Goddard
Partner, PT
John Ruesler
Clinic Director, DPT, CMPT, Astym Cert.
Jennifer Szydlowski
Clinic Director, PT, CMPT
Stacey Collins
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CMPT
Brian Freund
Partner, DPT, CMPT, TPS, MBA
Joe Schmersahl
Clinic Director, PT, MTC, CMTPT
Bailey Zimmermann
Front Office Supervisor
Bradley Webb
Clinic Director, PT
Kelly Basler
Front Office
Daniel Scribner
PT, DPT, ATC
Jayne Scanlan
DPT, COMT, CMTPT, FAAOMPT
Sharon Titter
Clinic Director, MPT
Natalie Carter
PT, DPT, Astym. Cert.
Michelle Schrage
Front Office
Megan Phillips
Front Office
TJ Jung
PT, DPT
Kaysie Cope
Front Office
Christine Lucke
MPT, COMT.
Lauren Huckstep
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CSCS, Astym Cert.
Mary Headrick
Front Office Associate
Megan Mason
OTD, OTR/L
Lauren Vaughn
PT, DPT, CMPT, Astym Cert.
Emma Witte
PTA, ASTYM Cert.
Stephanie Heubi
Front Office
Hannah Drake
DPT, CMPT, ATC, LAT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
JP Thompson
PT, DPT, Astym Cert.
Marion Shaw
Front Office Supervisor
Kelly Barnes
Physical Therapist
Abigail Alsmeyer
Front Office
Lisa Bell
Front Office
Shelby Ellis
Front Office
Kayla Kowal
PT, DPT, CSCS
Amanda Reynolds
Front Office
Erin Bauer
PT, DPT
Annmarie Koenen
Front Office
Kelly Thornton
Clinic Director, PT, DPT
Jamie Davis
Front Office
Grace Gualtieri
Physical Therapist
Jennifer Zweigart
Front Office
Heather Guffey
Front Office
Candy Willcox
Front Office
Justin Bridwell
Front Office
Jeff Cowdry
OTR/L, CHT
Shannon Blum
PTA, ATC
Chris Casner
PT, Clinic Director
Christine Rufkahr
PT, COMT, CSMT

Locations

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