Injury Prevention in Windsor Springs, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to spend more time hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our licensed Windsor Springs, 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 exercises that are proven to prevent injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Windsor Springs, MO people’s lives. We love active endeavors such as playing sports, swimming, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Windsor Springs, MO physical therapists help you return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury 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 level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Windsor Springs, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Windsor Springs, MO

Injuries generally happen for one of two reasons:

1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as water polo or shotput and pole-vaulters, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Windsor Springs, 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 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 crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to inadequate muscle balance in relation to other 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 having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficiency

Tailored injury prevention with our certified physical therapists in Windsor Springs, 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, causing injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficits
• Lessened balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in Windsor Springs, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any additional medical professionals involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a tailored plan of attack based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when lying down, sitting, or in specific stances related to a given activity. Healthy posture means correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which interferes with our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures muscle balance, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Windsor Springs, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take breaks — 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 signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Wear the appropriate equipment — Helmets, chin straps, elbow pads, and other required equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Windsor Springs, MO doctor or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the injured area. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Improve muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your tailored injury prevention program with our licensed Windsor Springs, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more forceful movements.
  2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and re-energizing the muscles.
  3. It improves your posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that include bouncing and jumping require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• 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 improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze 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, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately stop all physical activity 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 — Even though gutting it out through pain is often viewed as a courageous act among competitors, playing with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules put in place to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to get a physical before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Windsor Springs, MO is right for you. 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 how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Senior Citizens in Windsor Springs, MO

Falls in adults over 65 accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and over 34,000 deaths. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Windsor Springs, 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

Windsor Springs, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same elation. The professional Windsor Springs, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to learn more about what our Windsor Springs, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.