Speed Recovery and Prevent Re-injury
If you’re involved in any kind of sports activity, you’ve probably experienced a sports-related injury in one form or another. Strains, sprains, tears, and fractures, among other complaints, are often common byproducts of being physically active over time.
Whether for a team sport such as football or soccer, or solo activity like running or dancing, hours of training result in natural wear and tear on the body causing many people to train in pain. In addition, sports injuries sustained from tackles, falls, improperly warming up, and overtraining leave many people sidelined for long periods of passively waiting for injuries to heal.
Chiropractic care can help keep you in the game by assisting with active healing, reducing both recovery time and the likelihood of re-injury.
How does chiropractic care help in sports rehab?
Chiropractors specialize in body alignment issues and routinely perform manual adjustments of the spine to ensure, among other things, proper movement and maximum mobility. Properly aligned and balanced bodies allow muscles, ligaments, and tendons to work together instead of against each other in the performance of physical tasks. By identifying and correcting alignment issues, allowing the body to work in balance, chiropractors can both treat and help prevent injuries of the neck, back, shoulder, knee, and ankle.
Often, when extremely sore or mildly injured, an athlete will change their gait, grip, or other motion to allow themselves to still participate in their sport. This not only prevents the original injury from healing properly, but it can also create new issues in other areas.
By performing a detailed assessment of body alignment, a chiropractor can identify causes of pain and inflammation leading to a patient’s impaired range of motion, and with gentle chiropractic adjustments restore the neck and spine to proper form. This can relieve pain in the immediate area, and eliminate pressure on nerves that might be causing radiating pain in the extremities.
Resting the affected area is generally advised, but isn’t always enough on its own for complete healing, particularly when dealing with chronic or recurring pain. Including chiropractic care as part of your sports rehab allows you to be proactive with your healing process and get you back to your usual activity in less time.
Injuries are a possibility when participating in almost any sport, but there is no doubt that the benefits far outweigh the risks in your efforts to be physically fit. However, it’s important to treat sports injuries quickly no matter how minor, so talk to us about how chiropractic care can be a valuable part of your sports injury rehabilitation, as well as a beneficial, ongoing part of your physical fitness program.
