Are you an athlete dealing with a new injury, pain, or stagnant performance? Have you been told to rest, ice, and wait for your body to heal, but things just aren’t getting better? It’s time to take advantage of chiropractic care for sports injuries!
When it comes to stubborn sports injuries, chiropractic care is a total game changer for accelerating your recovery and optimizing your performance. From chiropractic adjustments for sports injuries to specialized movement training, your chiropractor can help you get back on the field faster than ever before.
Keep reading to discover what the relationship between athletic performance and chiropractic care is, what some of the biggest benefits of chiropractic care for sports injuries are, and tips on how to get back in the game faster after an injury.
Let’s go!
Why Do Athletes Get Injured In The First Place?
No matter what sport you play, injuries are likely to be one of your biggest concerns. That’s because one bad injury can mean the end of your game, or even the end of your season. But why are these injuries so common anyway?
Put simply, athletes work hard. Whether you’re playing golf, going on a run, or hitting a personal record at your CrossFit gym, the limits of your body are being pushed again and again. This means that when something isn’t functioning properly, or a movement doesn’t happen just right, injuries are very likely to occur.
Three of the most common reasons that injuries happen to athletes include:
Poor Technique - Athletes need to move quickly, which means that every movement needs to be performed with excellent technique to optimize performance and prevent injuries. When technique isn’t up to par and your body is under a high amount of stress, injuries are far more likely to happen.
Muscle Imbalances - Even with the right technique, an athlete can still experience injuries because of muscle imbalances. Most commonly a muscle imbalance means that certain muscles are weaker or tighter than others, causing stress to build up in certain areas faster. Injuries related to muscle imbalances can happen suddenly or slowly develop over time.
Pure Bad Luck - Poor technique and muscle imbalances can be accounted for with the right guidance, but some things are entirely outside of an athlete’s control. Accidents like falls, crashes, and tackles are just a few examples of things that can cause injuries to even the most trained athletes. But don’t worry, you still have some control over how your recovery goes after bad luck lands you on the bench!
The Power of Chiropractic Care for Athletes
When a sports injury is affecting your performance, it’s normal to feel discouraged and unable to see the path to feeling better. This can create a vicious cycle of pain and inactivity that makes you question if you’ll ever perform your best again.
That’s where chiropractic treatment for sports injuries comes in. Regular chiropractic care can help relieve pain and stiffness related to your injury, restore normal strength and mobility, and accelerate your recovery back to your prior performance level.
Chiropractic care can even help you perform movements better than before by improving your range of motion and alignment, ultimately helping you perform at the highest level possible!
It’s all-too-common for athletes to be told to rest, ice, and wait for their injury to heal on its own before getting active again. While there is some truth to this initially, staying active throughout your recovery can actually improve your results and help you get back to your normal performance level faster.
Top 3 Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Sports Injuries
The list of benefits from chiropractic care for athletes is massive, and the specific benefits can vary between athletes. Whether you’re recovering from an ankle sprain or trying to shave a few seconds off of your quarter-mile run, you can see progress with the help of the right chiropractor for athletes.
Although it can be hard to pick just a few benefits of chiropractic treatment for sports injuries, here are the top three that you can expect from regular treatment:
Pain Management
When it comes to sports injuries, pain is almost always part of the equation. From muscle strains to dislocations, pain after an injury can be one of the biggest hurdles to getting active again and starting your path to recovery.
Luckily, chiropractors are experts in pain management. That means that when you’re having pain from a sports injury that’s holding you back, your chiropractor can not only provide treatments that help keep your pain under control, but can also teach you strategies to better manage your pain throughout your recovery.
Restoring Normal Movement
After a sports injury, pain is often paired with stiffness that can last for weeks or even months. While it might not seem like that big of a deal to have some stiffness at first, impaired mobility can lead to compensation patterns and weaknesses that can actually slow your recovery and increase your risk for having another injury.
With the help of an expert chiropractor for athletes, you can restore normal movement around your injury sooner and prevent harmful compensation patterns. By getting active earlier in your recovery, and with normal movement patterns, you can enjoy a smooth and faster recovery process.
Strength and Conditioning
Although most people think of chiropractic adjustments for sports injuries when they think of chiropractic care, your chiropractor is also a great resource for getting stronger and improving your athletic performance.
As movement specialists, many chiropractors are trusted experts for strength and conditioning coaching. After a sports injury your muscles, joints, and other surrounding tissues often become weakened. In addition to identifying where your weak links are after an injury, your chiropractor can help build a treatment plan that includes exercise to strengthen your injured area while preventing loss of strength and endurance.
How to Get Back In The Game Faster After an Injury
Your body is an amazing thing, and many sports injuries can be overcome with enough time and patience. But you’re an athlete, and recovering with less time spent on the bench means more plays, more games, and more wins.
However, recovering faster can still require patience and a healthy amount of restraint. In fact, even with the best care plan and excellent advice from your chiropractor, your success ultimately depends on your own efforts being carefully guided over time.
Consistency is key, so focus on doing something helpful for your recovery every single day. This is especially important to keep in mind for people who either want to completely rest as a form of recovery, or who push themselves too hard during a single session and ultimately slow down their progress.
Getting back in the game is important, but staying in the game is even more vital. This means that while recovering from your injury is a major goal of your chiropractic care, preventing new injuries should be equally high on your priority list. That’s why your chiropractor will coach and educate you to not only perform better, but also more efficiently and safely.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to chiropractic care for sports injuries, every little bit helps with your recovery. Here are a few key points to remember about chiropractic treatment for sports injuries:
- Athletes work hard, but your body can’t always handle what you throw at it. Three of the most common causes of sports injuries are poor technique, muscle imbalances, and pure bad luck.
- Chiropractic care is a great option for sports injuries because it can help you better understand your injury, recover faster, and perform better than before.
- Three of the biggest benefits of chiropractic care for sports injuries include pain management, restoring normal movement, and strength and conditioning.
- To get back in the game faster after a sports injury, focus on being consistent and putting in effort every single day - you can make a full recovery and perform better than before!
Don't let stubborn sports injuries hold you back any longer. Discover how expert chiropractic care at Strive2Move can help you recover better than ever before by scheduling an appointment today!
