Wildwood, MO

Wildwood, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the activities you love.

Injury Prevention in Wildwood, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified Wildwood, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Wildwood, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off future health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eurodegenerative disease, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Wildwood, MO physical therapists help you come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained 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 Wildwood, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Wildwood, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Overuse 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 raquetball or shotput and pole-vaulters and typically manifest themselves as joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with a sudden impact to the knee.

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

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

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, 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 key to supporting joints and preventing 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 one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, making them more susceptible to injuries. Muscle imbalance applies to inadequate muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in Wildwood, 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. Symptoms include:

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

When you first see our injury prevention specialists in Wildwood, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll come up with a customized plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in specific positions related to their sport. Correct posture refers to correct positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it harder to attain optimal motion 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 can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.



Injury Prevention Techniques in Wildwood, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. No one precaution is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

  • Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. 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 have a more modest activity level, take a break for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
  • Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as rashes or brain injuries. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Wildwood, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. In your customized injury prevention program with our licensed Wildwood, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more drastic movements.
    2. It improves circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
    3. It increases your posture, which, as you read earlier, is an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to studies, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and release the high levels of energy required. Also, remember to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • 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. Football players learn 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 evaluate how to improve it.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and rehab with a physical therapist to ensure 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 in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling 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 there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Wildwood, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

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

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Wildwood, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While the physical demands for older adults 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 Wildwood, MO include:

Wildwood, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same freedom. The experienced Wildwood, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your 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 doing most. We will aid you in feeling 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 Wildwood, 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
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Lauren Huckstep
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CSCS, Astym Cert.
Annmarie Koenen
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

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