How Chiropractors Improve Athletic Performance and Treat Sports Injuries

Athletes at all ages and levels know how important it is to maintain overall wellness, employ advanced preventative care, and recover from sports injuries as quickly as possible so that they can return to action. Chiropractors specialize in these niche needs as they focus on improving brain-body connection, biomechanical joint health, and range of motion required for optimal performance. It is for these reasons that chiropractors have been a valuable part of the U.S. medical team in every Olympic and Pan-American Games since 1980.

Whether you identify as a gym enthusiast, weekend warrior, professional, amateur or child athlete, chiropractic care can benefit your athletic performance as a preventative measure and treatment. Through regular, non-invasive manual assessments and spinal adjustments, a chiropractor can help you mitigate biomechanical injuries and neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction caused by overuse or repetitive movements. They can also help eliminate acute and chronic pain associated with the stresses sports exude on the body.

Chiropractors Help Improve Athletic Performance

Experts estimate that about…

90% of all world-class athletes use chiropractic care to enhance their performance and prevent sports related injuries.

The world’s best are embracing chiropractic care and here are few compelling reasons why. 

Chiropractic Care:

1. Prevents injuries before they occur.
   Athletes with increased flexibility and range of motion within their joints are less likely to be injured while playing sports. Chiropractic care can help you maintain healthy levels of flexibility and range of motion through regular spinal manipulations or adjustments, specific stretches, and exercises.
   
   
2. Speeds up and helps you recover from workouts.
   Healthy bodies recover more quickly from workouts by improving the muscle cells ability to recover from the growth process. After working out your muscles form micro-tears which then repair themselves as stronger, more capable fibers. Chiropractors can help address nutritional deficiencies that help, as well as alternative forms of therapy such as cryotherapy to expedite the healing process. 
   
   
3. Improves coordination, range of motion, and balance.
   By addressing imbalances within the spine and related joints, chiropractors can help athletes restore proper alignment of the musculoskeletal system so that the body functions as it is intended to. This in turn improves coordination, range of motion, and brain-body connectivity that affects balance.
   
   
4. Shortens healing and recovery time after injury.
   When the brain-body connection is able to communicate properly the body is capable of healing itself faster and more efficiently. Chiropractic care addresses misalignments that interrupt that connection so recovery time is reduced dramatically post treatment.
   
   
5. Improves overall wellness and boosts your immune system.
   Athletes can be prone to sickness due to the added stress sports put on their bodies. Poor spinal health hinders the function of the nervous system which directly relates to the immune system, thus by addressing misalignments within the spine chiropractic care helps boost your immune system. Alternative influences your chiropractor may address can be found in this article, “Avoid These 7 Immune System Saboteurs.”

How Chiropractors Treat Athletes with Sports Injuries

Sports injuries are fairly common amongst athletes and include everything from a sprain or strain to dislocations and fractures. Doctors of chiropractic work with a collaborative team of professionals to properly diagnose an injury so that they can customize a treatment plan that will best support your body’s healing process. They look at neuromuscular irregularities, spinal alignment, and joint function to determine the underlying cause of pain so that they can apply proper treatment. Through spinal manipulations, traction therapy, temporary bracing, specific exercises, and heat/cold therapies they can help your body recover from a sports injury.

The Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Athletes

As a comprehensive healthcare, chiropractors look at more than an athlete’s body symmetry, joint mobility, flexibility, and overall agility. They address how nutrition and lifestyle affects the body’s entire kinetic chain and they focus on ways to enhance athletic performance through balance. As an expert in the spinal, musculoskeletal, and nervous systems, a chiropractor can help you improve athletic performance and treat sports injuries. 

Find a chiropractor near you for preventative care, to find the source of your sports related injury, or to expedite the healing process so that you can return to the active and athletic lifestyle you’re accustomed to.