Chiropratic Care For Sports Injuries

An athlete who competes, even at the peak of health and in great physical condition, really push their bodies in order to perform. As a result, the physical toll they put on their bodies through running, jumping, repetitive arm and leg extensions, hard body hits like tackling, even falling down can present themselves in the form cranial, spinal, and extremity contusions, sprains, strains, tears, fractures, even chronic injuries. These injuries can have an adverse affect on an athletes performance if not treated properly. Many professional as well as amateur athletes are utilizing the services of sports chiropractics as an alternative medicine and to provide immediate and long term care after an injury.

Chiropractic care has garnered quite a bit of attention over the years, in regards to its successful management of sporting injuries; since the majority of sports injuries are soft tissue in nature and because many of injuries arise from incorrect body biomechanics and faulty sporting techniques. The primary function of a Chiropractic Doctor is to treat, through manipulation to those areas of the spine or surrounding joints which are slightly displaced and fail to function normally. According to an article in the June 1998 issue of The Physician and Sports Medicine magazine, "Interest in alternative or complementary medicine 'especially chiropractic' is booming... active patients are running to unconventional providers to treat their aches and pains... from chiropractors and acupuncture to magnets and meditation." A Sports Chiropractor is possesses specific knowledge about various sporting injuries and is trained to treat them properly because of this he has the ability to optimize an athletes recovery and to assist in preventing future injury.

Sports Chiropractors utilize sports massages to encourage muscle repair before, during, and after athletic events. These massages are integral in chiropractic care and can range from a deep tissue massage to a swedish massage, or even a shiatsu massage and are administered based on the upon the needs of the athlete. The purpose of a pre-event massage is to warm up the muscles and a post event massage encourages the flow of blood and oxygen to overworked areas; it also eases any muscle pain the athlete may be experiencing.

There are several professional organizations that employ Sports Chiropractors and keep them on staff to ensure their athletes are well taken care of. The United States Olympics Committee has several chiropractors as an integral part of their sports medicine team, so does the National Football League, as well as the committees of the Goodwill Games, New York and Boston Marathons, just to name a few.