Helping Every Player at Every Level

There is a common misconception that sports chiropractic is something only elite athletes need. At Lifetime Chiropractic we offer the same unparalleled chiropractic care to everyone, from Little League players to weekend warriors to elite athletes. That’s because all sport place demands on the body, and these demands (even though they’re part of the fun) are interpreted by the body as stress, that stress results in interference in the nervous system which will cause suboptimal performance and can lead to injuries.

When an athlete receives regular chiropractic adjustments, it helps remove this interference from the nervous system, so your whole body functions at a higher level. In addition, regular adjustments improve the body’s proprioceptive ability, which is the body’s perception of where it is in space and time. When this ability is enhanced, reflexes and coordination improve, helping you play at your best.

 

Addressing Injuries

When your body is functioning optimally, you are less likely to be injured, making chiropractic care an essential component of many training regimens. In addition, when you receive regular care, we can identify many types of overuse injuries in the earliest stages and treat them before they become serious injuries and take you out of the game.

Of course, injuries still occur when playing sports, and chiropractic is highly effective in treating sports injuries and helping you recover more quickly. When your body is under regular chiropractic care it is functioning at a higher level, this includes the repair of injuries and damaged tissues.  Chiropractic care is not only for spines–we address the extremities as well; feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and even the TMJ.

Have you heard the names Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Aaron Rodgers, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, and Kareem Abdul-Jubbar before? These are some of the elite athletes who attribute a large amount of their success to the chiropractic care they received throughout their careers.

In addition to the success experienced by these world class athletes, you may have noticed chiropractors along the sidelines of NFL football games and the most recent Olympic events. Both of these organizations have recognized how vital chiropractic is to their team’s success and integrated chiropractic doctors into their sports medicine team.

Not only can chiropractic help world famous athletes excel, it has also been shown to provide short and long term benefits for entry level, high school, and college participants. Lifetime Chiropractic has been providing care to local athletes for over 20 years.

 

How Can Chiropractic Help

Athletes routinely and continually put their bodies through an extremely high level of physical stress. These stressors are different than what we experience as a result of too much school work or demands from the boss at work. Sports participation often involves quick starts and stops, explosive jumping or running, collisions, and atypical body postures that put added demands on the body’s physical structure. Whether you are a football player, wrestler, golfer, or runner, chiropractic can provide the assistance your body needs to be able to adapt to these added stresses. Often, these unusual stresses cause the bones in our back to come out of place. The effects of these changes create a cascade that often leads to loss of motion, flexibility, and speed while increasing the chances of developing headaches or predisposing the body to future athletic related injuries. For example, many long distance runners have been shown to develop chronic cases of tendonitis and pain throughout the joints in their legs. Typically, they are prescribed a pain killer to mask the symptoms of pain, providing short term relief. If pain killers were the real solution to the problem, why would they have to be continually taken?

The truth is that many sports related injuries begin due to nerve interference caused by misalignments in our joints, primarily the spine. Chiropractors such as Dr. Dan at Lifetime Chiropractic are specially trained at removing this type of interference. When this nerve interference is removed, the body experiences an increase in blood flow, higher immune system function, proper motor pattern firing, and overall better health. As a result, athletes receiving care at our clinic have noticed increased flexibility, speed, agility, and power during sports participation. These types of results have been seen at chiropractic clinics all across the country. In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Research and Investigation showed that as much as 32% of athletes receiving chiropractic care experienced these results and an even higher percentage showed a decrease in the number of injuries sustained during sports participation.

 

When Should An Athlete See A Chiropractor

The best answer to this question is… NOW!   Athletes of all ranks shouldn’t wait to see a chiropractor until after an injury has occurred. While chiropractic has been proven to be an excellent source for injury rehabilitation and healing, it is an even better resource for preventing the damage from happening from these events. Chiropractors view the body as a whole, taking into account all aspects of health. Lifetime Chiropractic has the resources to provide chiropractic adjustments and soft tissue manipulation to address the nervous, skeletal, muscular, and ligamentous systems. Through this approach, the body is allowed to function at its optimal level, keeping you off the bench sidelined with injuries throughout the season. As Jerry Rice said, “Chiropractic care helped me stay healthy and succeed in the league for as long as I did.”

Call us at Lifetime Chiropractic today to see how chiropractic care can help your sports performance.