Injury Prevention in Winchester, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or you just retired and want to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed Winchester, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to teach out exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Winchester, MO residents. We love activities like playing sports, biking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off serious health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Winchester, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

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 Winchester, MO for a free injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and ensure that you can continue with your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Winchester, MO

Most injuries happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive demand 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 tennis or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
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, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

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

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and are sometimes unpreventable, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three main causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one muscle group, 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 insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Winchester, 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. It can be caused by many different musculoskeletal issues. It can cause injury through:

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

When you first visit our injury prevention experts in Winchester, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll devise a customized game plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement health to the level you need it to to do what you love.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain body positions necessary for their sport. Healthy posture means correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach ideal movement health. It causes injuries through:

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

By teaching you the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, range of motion, and that your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Winchester, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one technique is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take a rest — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chin straps, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Winchester, MO physician or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our Winchester, 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.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important 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 adjust to more drastic positions.
  2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and rebuilding the muscles.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like soccer that include sudden twists and movements require soft tissue flexible enough to store and exert the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use accepted technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to reduce the risk of a concussion, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and analyze how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel a sudden pop or grinding sensation, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While 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 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, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Those are in place for a reason, and there’s 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 a new season or starting up a new physical activity. During your visit, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Winchester, MO is right for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Winchester, MO

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that accumulate over time 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 seniors may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and optimal posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Winchester, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation

Winchester, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in one of your favorite activities can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same exultation. The knowledgeable Winchester, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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 that you once valued so much. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to discover what our Winchester, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.