Injury Prevention in Woodhine Heights, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our professional Woodhine Heights, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many Woodhine Heights, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Woodhine Heights, MO physical therapists help you come back 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 healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are personalized to each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Woodhine Heights, 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 at your earliest convenience.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Woodhine Heights, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Chronic injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as baseball or quarterbacks, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen suddenly. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Woodhine Heights, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and staving off injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming tired faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

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

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Woodhine Heights, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Neurological issues, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can cause injury through:

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

At our first injury prevention appointment in Woodhine Heights, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll design a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people with desk jobs. People who play sports and other physically active people can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, driving, or in specific body positions related to a given activity. Optimal posture means proper alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

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

Good posture is a vital part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Injury Prevention Methods in Woodhine Heights, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

• 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, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other recommended equipment in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like bruises or brain injuries. If you’re returning to activity after an injury, your Woodhine Heights, MO physician or injury prevention professional may recommend braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Increase muscle strength — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. Our Woodhine Heights, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to safely participate in the activities you love.
• Enhance flexibility — Increasing your flexibility accomplishes three critical things for injury prevention:
  1. It increases which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more forceful positions.
  2. It improves circulation, which carries nutrient-rich blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It increases your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an essential part of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that include dynamic movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and exert the high levels of energy required. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t feeling up to an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While playing through pain is often seen as a courageous act among competitors, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury 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, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and rehab with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules that were adopted 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.
• Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s always advisable to have a medical evaluation before a new season or starting up a new physical activity. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Woodhine Heights, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to prevent injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, any previous injuries, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Woodhine Heights, MO

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that being physical active is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions 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 active. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Woodhine Heights, 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

Woodhine Heights, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The knowledgeable Woodhine Heights, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a 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 see what our Woodhine Heights, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.