Not participating in the Olympics this year? That’s okay. Chiropractic can still improve your health and your sports performance. Here’s how.
As a seasoned chiropractor, I not only have been trained to treat sports injuries, I have treated many of these injuries in my 20-year career. I can advise you in the best way to not only treat your injury but to keep it from recurring.
Treatment can range from joint manipulation, massage, or specific exercises that target your particular injury, while strengthening previously injured or weakened muscles and joints.
If you’re working with a trainer, all the better! Chiropractic and a qualified trainer are the perfect pair to keep you healthy and injury-free!
What Causes an Injury?
Sometimes working out seems a little unfair. You’re doing your part to stay strong and healthy, but then WHAM! You get an injury.
You’re wondering what happened?
There are two types of sports injuries. The first is fairly obvious. It’s caused by a trauma. For example, a car accident or a fall.
The second stems from the overuse of a muscle group through a repetitive motion, which causes inflammation or an injury. Now that one may sound very familiar to you!
As an athlete or serious work out enthusiast, it’s very easy to overdo, causing a repetitive motion injury.
Chiropractic is very beneficial for recovering from injuries or difficult workouts. But a new study of 18 professional judo athletes from Brazil also shows the chiropractic benefits of preventing injuries, too.
Half of the athletes received chiropractic adjustments while the other half received sham treatments. Both groups were evaluated for grip strength. While both groups maintained their regular training schedules, the chiropractic group had substantially better outcomes. You can read more about that study here.
Why Chiropractic Works for Sports Injuries
The Brazilian study is more evidence that chiropractic adjustments improve nervous system functioning. That, in turn, strengthens muscles.
And just like exercise, it’s important to get regular chiropractic adjustments to keep your body humming along.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympic champion or a weekend warrior. Chiropractic can play a vital role in keeping your nervous system working effectively.
But there are two other aspects to sports injury prevention that can’t be overlooked, warming up and cooling down.
Your muscles must receive a proper warm up to function efficiently, and when it comes to sports injuries, an improper warm up is at the top of the list.
Always make sure you give your body the warm up it needs so that you prevent injuries. A simple 5 minutes of stretching can save you time, money, and lost work out time.
As for cooling down, it was once believed that stretching after working out could prevent sore muscles, which stems from a lactic acid build up. This theory has since been disproven.
Cooling down after working out, however, does gradually bring your heart rate back to a resting level. Stretching is also still important because it can improve flexibility over time, and that helps to prevent injuries!
If you need chiropractic treatment for sport injuries, or you’d like to have Lowman Chiropractic as your workout partner, give us a call today. 540-886-5500.
We'd be honored to work with you!