Weingarten, MO

Weingarten, MO

Don't let a mental block over reinjury keep you from the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Weingarten, 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 bike riding, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our licensed Weingarten, 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 most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Weingarten, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, swimming, and more. Additionally, keeping an active lifestyle helps stave off significant health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Weingarten, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are customized for each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Weingarten, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Weingarten, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who use throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first indicator.
  2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling 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, like 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 Weingarten, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Weingarten

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Weingarten, MO

While injuries occur for many different reasons, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur 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 key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can cause 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 probability of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to insufficient 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 result in:

Customized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Weingarten, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

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. Neurological issues, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

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

When you initially see our injury prevention professionals in Weingarten, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any additional providers involved in your care, we’ll design a personalized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with slouched shoulders. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, using the computer, or in specific poses related to a given activity. Good posture means correct alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it harder to reach 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 good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Weingarten, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to prevent one. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is prepared for your desired activity level:

  • 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 naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in many sports can help prevent injuries like rashes or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Weingarten, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may fit you for stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like tying your shoes tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our licensed Weingarten, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It increases your range of motion, which allows for your soft tissue to handle more dramatic movements.
    2. It boosts circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and fortifying the muscles.
    3. It encourages good posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to research, sports like basketball that necessitate dynamic activities require soft tissue flexible enough to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use proper technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way 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 are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous training session, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle a return to physical activity.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Weingarten, MO is something you should consider. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, 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 Weingarten, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Weingarten

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Weingarten, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for over 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of 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, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Weingarten, MO include:

Weingarten, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same joy. The knowledgeable Weingarten, 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. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention experts in Weingarten, 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
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
Lisa Bell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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