Injury Prevention in Winfield, 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 Winfield, 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 teach out exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Winfield, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Winfield, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action even stronger after an injury, 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, for both recovery and injury prevention, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Winfield, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Winfield, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive motion 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 athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions and commonly are accompanied by joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, 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, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Winfield, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are inescapable, 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 essential to supporting joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming tired sooner, making them more susceptible to injuries. 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 professional physical therapists in Winfield, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

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 a variety of musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Coordination deficiency
• Reduced balance

When you first visit our injury prevention professionals in Winfield, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll design a tailored game plan been proven to work through 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 others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in certain poses necessary for a given activity. Correct posture means 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 reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is a necessary part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Winfield, 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 several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• 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 signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, protective eyewear, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Winfield, MO physician or physical therapist may suggest stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our licensed Winfield, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Stretching achieves three important things for injury prevention:
  1. It boosts which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more dramatic movements.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It increases your posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that include sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons flexible enough to perform those movements. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before any physical activity 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 reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid a concussion, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to use the appropriate muscles. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense training session, save it for another day.
• 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 put you out of commission 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 make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous physical activity. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Winfield, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Winfield, MO

Falls in adults over 65 were responsible for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that develop over the course of several years can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Winfield, MO include:

• 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
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

Winfield, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in one of your favorite activities causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same freedom. The experienced Winfield, 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 at ease 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. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to discover what our Winfield, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.