One of the biggest misconceptions about chiropractic care is that it’s simply “cracking bones.” In reality, it is a therapy in which a practitioner manually adjusts joints to realign them into their proper functioning position to relieve pain.
Athletes regularly deal with muscle and joint soreness, as well as sports injuries and other physical maladies. Every athlete can benefit from chiropractic care, whether you’re an elite professional or competing in junior high. You don’t have to wait until you’re injured to benefit. In fact, you can elevate your performance with chiropractic care.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the benefits of a chiropractor for athletes.
Prevent Injury and Optimize Performance
While chiropractic care is usually known as a means of rehabbing and fixing physical ailments such as joint soreness, it can also help prevent future injuries and optimize your athletic performance.
Chiropractic care can prevent injuries since it emphasizes proper spinal alignment. The spine, torso and pelvis can become misaligned over time, which is common among athletes due to the stress they regularly put upon their bodies. This misalignment can cause tension to build in other parts of the body and an unequal distribution of pressure, leading to discomfort and pain.
Regularly visiting a chiropractor can ensure that your spine and pelvis are properly aligned, which can assist in injury prevention. Nothing is worse than having sore joints on the day of a big athletic event. As an athlete, you may have trained for years for a competition, only to be sidelined due to physical pain and discomfort. Chiropractic care aims to relieve this discomfort and prevent it from reoccurring.
If an athlete’s spine and pelvis are properly aligned, they will feel more comfortable and have less physical pain, aiding in their performance. Correcting musculoskeletal imbalances aims to improve the mobility of joints, which can help athletes perform with the proper form and mechanics necessary to succeed.
Recovering From a Sports Injury
As an athlete, you know you need to take injuries seriously. If you continue to perform while injured, you may damage joints, nerves and muscles further. Continued usage of an injured area of the body can even lead to permanent damage. Chiropractic care treatments help athletes with injuries heal and gain strength in the injured area so they can perform exceptionally once again.
A sports chiropractor will work on your body’s soft tissue and your joints in a coordinated and precise treatment to improve your mobility after an athletic injury.
After an injury, it is impossible for an athlete to pick back up right where they left off. Whether it be a small injury such as a sore back or a larger, more debilitating injury, chiropractic care can often help with increasing the strength and motion of the injured area — a crucial factor of recovery.
Nearly every athlete will struggle with an injury at some point. How you respond to that injury can make all the difference. Take your injury seriously, and work with a chiropractor to get your body back to health before returning to training or competition.
How Chiropractic Treatment Helps
A licensed chiropractor will use hands-on spinal manipulation to align an athlete’s musculoskeletal structure properly. Focusing on the spine, the manipulation aims to restore mobility to joints that have become restricted due to a tissue injury. Many different traumatic events can cause an athletic injury, such as falling, overexertion, repetitive stress or even moving the wrong way.
A successful chiropractic treatment will increase an athlete’s flexibility, improve joint mobility and enhance circulation throughout the body.
Chiropractic care has many benefits, assisting in spinal and back healing and helping treat neck pain and headaches. In addition, chronic pain such as fibromyalgia, arthritis and osteoarthritis may respond well to the pressure of chiropractic treatments.
Chiropractic care is all about relieving and preventing discomfort and pain. Chiropractic care can also help increase relaxation. In this busy world, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. This is no different for athletes who may have stressful practices, games and competitions. Chiropractic treatment aims to relieve tension in your joints and muscles, helping you unwind and carry less overall stress in your body and mind. Lower stress levels can help you be more competitive and have fewer physical and mental tolls on the body during and after a competition.
Professional Athletes and Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care for an active lifestyle isn’t limited to amateur athletes. Many professional athletes use chiropractic treatments to help keep their bodies in shape, comfortable and injury-free during training and competition.
Olympic silver medalist runner Meb Keflezighi tries to get a sports chiropractic adjustment every other week. Keflezighi has said that he likes chiropractic care because they look at the whole body, not just the injury.
In 2012, Olympic marathon runner Desiree Linden had fractured her femur. Linden credited chiropractic care with helping her return to form and run in the 2014 New York City Marathon, where she finished fifth.
Other world-renowned professional athletes who enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care include NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and tennis superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams. Venus Williams attributes chiropractic treatment to giving her the flexibility she needs to stay in the game.
The greatest superstar athletes in the world utilize the benefits of chiropractic to help them stay on top of their game, rehabilitate from injury and maintain their physical conditioning and form.
Reach out to Thrive Chiropractic Group
You don’t need to be a famous athlete to benefit from chiropractic treatments. High school athletes and active adults can see the benefits too. With advantages including preventing injury and optimizing an active lifestyle, chiropractic care benefits are evident in our everyday lives and the lives of popular athletes we watch for entertainment.
If you’re considering chiropractic care, trust the experts at Thrive Chiropractic Group. At Thrive Chiropractic Group, our mission is to help as many people as possible to take control of their health and live pain-free lives. Ready to get started? Reach out today to begin your journey toward a pain-free lifestyle!
