Have you ever wondered how top
athletes can perform at such a high level over the span of their career? A lot
of this ability comes from training, dedication, nutrition and what the
athletes do with their body. Most athletes are so in tune with their bodies, they
can tell you when something feels wrong or off. For them, they want to be performing
at one hundred and twenty percent, one hundred percent of the time, especially
before and during any physical performance. As the recognition of chiropractic
continues to grow, it has become very prevalent in sports medicine, and is
often recognized as an important part in the routines of professional athletes.
You don’t have to be a professional athlete to find benefits through
chiropractic care – athletes at any level, even recreationally, will benefit
from regular chiropractic care.
Many sports
require our bodies to be in high demand and to perform at an optimal level. Any
fault or irritation of the nervous system, which happens often in contact
sports, can result in a decrease of the ability to operate at one hundred
percent. These faults or irritations may not even be noticeable at first, but
they’re present and most likely affecting the athlete’s performance. If the
issues aren’t addressed, then it is likely that more will present themselves,
build on one another, and risk the athlete pushing it too far. For the athlete
who spent day after day training, pouring their heart and soul into playing the
game – this is their worst nightmare. If you’re an athlete and are reading
this, you get it.
Chiropractic helps reverse the stress placed
on the body when playing sports. Many amateur and professional athletes have sworn by their chiropractor and the
positive effects they have experienced through their care. These athletes have
mentioned that they notice a difference in their awareness, strength, agility
and flexibility. Tom Brady, Quarterback for the New England Patriots, has been
on record saying “Chiropractic just makes
you feel so much better. When
I walk out of the clinic, I feel like I’m about three inches taller and
everything’s in place. And as long as I see the chiropractor, I feel like I’m
one step ahead of the game.” I know football has
a lot of notoriety and is a high-contact sport - but chiropractic has made a
name for itself in more leisure sports, such as golf, as well. One of the
youngest winners of the Masters Tournament, Jordan Spieth, mentioned his chiropractor
in his acceptance speech of the green jacket. Chiropractic is essential in
keeping athletes across the board, all the way from football to golf, performing
at their absolute best.
Chiropractic,
along with regular maintenance and preventative care (we’ll get to that later),
helps greatly with injuries sustained from sports. As mentioned before, Chiropractic
can help improve your mobility, flexibility and more, but it also helps to
shorten the healing time of these athletes when they do become injured. Ask any
athlete – after recovering from an injury, they’re more than eager to get back
into the game and compete with their teammates. When an injury occurs, immediate
chiropractic care can help to keep the nervous system free of irritation and regulate
blood flow, allowing the body to coordinate the healing process faster and more
efficiently. Many of these injuries come in the form of headaches, joint pains
and sprains, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a contact sport – it can just
be a sport that puts unbalanced forces on the body, like golf and bowling to
name a few.
Chiropractic
is also great in preventative care. When you’re performing at your best, you’ll
notice that you can focus better and be more aware in every situation. Your
coordination will be functioning at an optimal level, resulting in better form,
better stress absorption, and better distribution of focus – just better everything. The power of the athlete is
distributed safely, in a manner that doesn’t exceed what the athletes body can
handle, which plays into the pain that is so often felt in athletes that they
push through to continue playing. Pain is the body’s indicator that something
isn’t working properly. Chiropractic is specially tuned to find any
misalignments in the spine that are causing the body to malfunction, so to
speak, and can return the body to a state of proper functionality; ultimately reducing
the pain and helping the athlete to avoid a potential serious or career ending
injury.
Do you play a sport?
Any sport, at any level, is still a sport and holds the same risk of injury
that we see in professional sports. Some could make the argument that those
outside of professional sports can be at a higher risk of injury than those
professionally. To be honest, the argument doesn’t matter – there is the same
risk of injury simply just from playing the sport. Chiropractic care, utilized
preventatively, reduces the risk of you getting injured and causing
interruptions in your daily life – missing work, school, or special life
events. By keeping your body properly
aligned and operating as the fine-tuned machine that it is, it lowers your risk
of injury. If you do sustain an
injury, Chiropractic will be there to help reverse the damage resulting from
the injury. By seeing a Chiropractor, sooner rather than later, you will be
back to doing what you love in a shorter amount of time than those who haven’t
sought chiropractic care. Even if you are new to Chiropractic, you will notice
a drastic decrease in recovery time from an injury compared to recovery without
Chiropractic care. Chiropractic care is a safe, non-invasive and drug-free
approach to providing relief to the body as a whole. It benefits in preventative
care are astronomical in keeping the body performing and functioning at its
optimal level.
