Injury Prevention in Wright City, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or a recent retiree who wants to spend more time taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our certified Wright City, 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 body’s current condition and how you move to guide you through 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 call the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Wright City, MO residents. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, playing golf, and more. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Wright City, MO physical therapists allow you to come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are proven to be effective and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Wright City, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your active lifestyle, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Wright City, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive motion 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 soccer goalies, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, for example rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Wright City, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause dependency on one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher likelihood of injury. Muscle imbalance applies to poor 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 an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

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

Personalized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Wright City, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of 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
• Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Wright City, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, together with your doctor or any additional medical professionals treating you, we’ll create 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 who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in specific poses they need to be in for a given activity. Optimal posture means proper positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that keeps the spine within its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it harder to attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It causes injuries through:

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

Good posture is an important 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 Techniques in Wright City, 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 several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to encourage your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, safety pads and guards, and other recommended equipment in many sports helps you avoid injuries such as cuts or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Wright City, MO physician or physical therapist may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
• Boost muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our licensed Wright City, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Increase flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to adapt to more forceful positions.
  2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It improves your posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require dynamic movements require soft tissue flexible enough to incorporate and release the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct 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 reduce the risk of brain damage, 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 evaluate how to both improve your performance and reduce your risk of injury.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you feel sudden pain, stop immediately and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t feeling up to a particularly rigorous workout, don’t force it.
• 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 much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to ensure your body heals naturally and can handle the activity you want to return to.
• Play by the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. 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 a good idea to get a physical before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in Wright City, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older Wright City, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for over 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in reducing the risk of 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 soft tissue and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Wright City, 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

Wright City, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing can lead to a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The licensed Wright City, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, 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 once valued so much. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in Wright City, MO.