Is a chiropractor worth it for athletes?
See how a chiropractor can help you heal and recover from athletic injuries.
Do Athletes Need Chiropractic Services?
As an athlete, you already know that an injury can be one of the biggest pitfalls to your career. Yet, injuries are mostly inevitable.
So one of the most efficient methods of combating and preventing injuries is to visit your local chiropractor and get an assessment done.
Many athletes use chiropractic services to treat various injuries and recover after strenuous workouts or competitions. They also give your joints and muscles the necessary treatment to perform better.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common sports injuries chiropractors treat and highlight why you use chiropractic services.
What Type of Sports Injuries Can a Chiropractor Treat and How Can Chiropractors Treat Them?
Here, we will look at some of the most common athletic injuries that chiropractors treat.
Sciatica
Lower back muscle pain is widespread among athletes. Some will suffer great pain from an inflamed sciatic nerve that runs down the spine — not the most pleasant feeling in the world.
If you suffer from this and find yourself at a chiropractor’s office, you’ll most likely be a candidate for spinal decompression. You and your spine will thank the chiropractor once he/she is done.
Neck Pain
If you play sports requiring quick neck movements such as soccer and football, you’ll notice that your neck will feel quite funny after a while.
Now, if you injure yourself, don’t be too alarmed. Chiropractic treatment of the neck is one of the safest treatments you can use.
Chiropractors will treat neck injuries with something called cervical manipulation. This involves loosening the joints of the cervical vertebrae in the neck, resulting in the reduction of pain caused by muscle spasms and pinched nerves.
Following this, the chiropractor will twist the neck sharply and snap the vertebrae back to their original alignment!
Hip Bursitis
If you’re a runner, you probably know this one pretty well. Hip Bursitis occurs when the bursa (a fluid-filled sac that counters joint friction) in the hips becomes inflamed.
Worried that you can’t run again? Take a breather.
By improving the coordination of the muscles in the buttocks and hips through various adjustments, chiropractors can help move the femur into its socket efficiently. This, in turn, significantly reduces the friction placed on the bursa and improves mobility in the hips, legs, and lower back.
You’ll be up and running again for sure.
Rotator Cuff Injury
This is one of the most common injuries seen among athletes who overuse their shoulders.
If you’ve thrown a football all goofy like I’ve done many times, you’ll know what this pain feels like.
For these injuries, chiropractors will manipulate your joints to relieve shoulder pain caused by the rotator cuff injury. They’ll also use techniques such as massage, stretching and strengthening muscles, and myofascial release to help recover your injured muscle.
Calf and Hamstring Pull
Any sport that involves high-speed running can be a source of a calf or hamstring pull. Your recovery time for such injuries will depend on their severity. It’s a no-brainer that a pulled muscle will recover faster than a torn one.
For calf injuries, chiropractic treatment can help loosen up your stiff joints in the ankles, feet, or hips that may be a source of wear and tear on your calves. ART (active release therapy) combined with chiropractic therapy is the best combination for treating calf injuries.
For pulled (tightened) hamstrings, chiropractors employ massage therapy and myofascial release to increase your hamstring mobility and boost recovery time.
Achilles Tendon Injury
If you’re an athlete competing in sports such as track and field, volleyball, and basketball, where jumping and landing place high stress on the Achilles tendon, I have some bad news for you. You have the highest risk of injuring your Achilles tendon.
In many cases, misalignment of other parts of your body can lead to issues in the Achilles tendon. These misalignments can lead to excessive stress on your feet and Achilles tendons.
But, your chiropractor has GOOD news for you!
To treat your Achilles tendon injury, your chiropractor will adjust your spine and other misaligned joints to ensure that your feet and Achilles tendons are not taking all the stress, thereby lowering your chances of injury and increasing your chances of a speedy recovery.
Pulled Groin
To all your football, soccer, and ice hockey players: I know you’re not a fan of this particular injury. Adductor strain, more commonly known as a pulled groin or groin strain, is a common injury caused by rapid starts and stops while running and jumping.
Like treatment for various other injuries, chiropractors focus on how your muscles interact with each other because the injured muscle may not always be the source of the injury.
For a pulled groin, chiropractors use treatments such as adjustments, active release therapy, dry needling, etc.
Golfer’s Elbow
“But I don’t play golf. So, I’m safe, right?” Wrong! This injury is not just seen in golfers (as the name strongly suggests) but also CrossFit athletes, weightlifters, baseball players, tennis players, and bowlers.
This condition causes pain in the forearm muscles near the boney-bumpy part of your elbow, and it can spread to the remainder of your forearm and wrist.
Chiropractors treat golfer's elbow by using methods such as active muscle release to break scar tissue. They also use joint manipulation by gently moving the injured elbow back and forth (within a safe, limited range) to return the joints to normal mobility, so you can take a swing at whatever you were previously doing.
Can a Chiropractor Help With Running Injuries?
As a runner, you may experience one or more injuries: runner’s knee, shin splints, IT band syndrome, Achilles tendinitis, stress fractures, and sprained ankles.
Chiropractors will not just treat your injury but allow you to prolong your running for as long as possible by treating the sources of injuries and employing techniques that prevent future injury.
To treat runners’ injuries, chiropractors use the following techniques:
Active Release Therapy (ART): to treat muscle adhesions.
Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS): to release tension by stimulating the surface of your muscles.
Graston Technique: to break down surface-level scar tissue
Functional Dry Needling: to release tension through deep muscle stimulation using needles.
Why Do Athletes Use Chiropractors?
Two simple reasons: efficiency of recovery and treating injuries.
As an athlete, you put your body through various demands such as running, jumping, landing, tackling, and twisting, to name a few. These movements and motions put your body through a great deal of pain, overuse, and sometimes, injuries.
Chiropractors help get your body back to normal.
The key to better performing in your next event or training session is highly contingent upon your recovery. A bad recovery is a recipe for fractured bones or muscle tears. And if you’ve had one of these, you know it’s no picnic.
However, since injuries are mostly inevitable (sad, I know), your goal is to make your recovery time as short as possible. Chiropractors use various techniques to help relieve pain and ensure a speedy recovery to your overused muscles.
Is a Chiropractor Worth It for Athletes?
Well, given all the reasons mentioned above, I’m fairly confident that your answer will be yes!
Almost every athletic injury can be treated solely by chiropractic therapy or by combining it with other treatments.
From running injuries to torn muscles, chiropractors don’t just treat injured muscles but the source of injury. By employing this holistic approach, chiropractic treatment prevents potential injuries by extension.
So now that you’ve given all the reasons for doing so, you should definitely invest in a good chiropractor and visit them regularly.
They will help you recover faster, treat injuries, and avoid potential injuries. Most importantly, they allow you to do what you love for as long as you can.