Chiropractic and Sports? What’s the connection?
Almost every NFL/AFL Football team has a Team Chiropractor working side by side with the Orthopedists, Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, and Paramedics, all doing their own part to ensure the well rounded athlete care. Many other professional sports teams also have Chiropractors, including Track and Field, Football, Soccer, MLB, AVP Volleyball, Hockey, and many, many more.
Why do sports teams use chiropractors?
Many chiropractors have prior experience in athletic training and kinesiology (the study of human body movement) or receive special training in sports related injuries and prevention. Doctors of Chiropractic go to college for 7-8 years (depending on if they take a three year accelerated year round graduate program), and many complete post graduate specialty programs.
Does Spinal Healthcare & Physical Medicine have docs that work with athletes?
Dr. Bosler has been a Certified Athletic Trainer since 1988 and her major at I.U. was Exercise Science. Her experience includes working with College foootball, soccer, baseball, tennis , diving, swimming, track and field and has worked with professional and Olympic athletes. She has continued that locally with children, middle school and high school to college to semi-pro.
The doctors at Spinal Healthcare & Physical Medicine can adjust athletes of any age, including the weekend athletes.
What do chiropractors specifically do for athletes?
Injury Prevention-by managing activity and functional performance to minimize or prevent overuse injuries. This area is often overlooked by many in terms of how muscles respond and become imbalanced in response to joint fixation or decreased range of motion, and the demands that this kind of dysfunction can become more serious injury over time and increased bodily demand. Many will perform functional evaluations after the original PPE’s are performed, and will either develop or assist the athletic trainer in developing/implementing sports specific evaluations and training recommendations.
Injury Management-by employing traditional rehab post-injury, or co-managing injuries with Orthopedists, Physical Therapists, and Athletic Trainers, sports Chiropractors are trained to triage in the absence of other professionals or assist in the presence of a primary physician if needed. Chiropractors are found field side or behind the scenes in the locker rooms working hard as a valuable asset to a well rounded athlete healthcare team. While many professions overlap some treatment methods and training, it is important to note that the Chiropractor plays an integral role on this team, and that while they may not perform the specialty duties of another professional in this atmosphere, that professional courtesy and respect is given to the overlapping areas, in order to provide the highest level of athlete care.
Performance Enhancement-similar to the difference between dial up and high speed internet, the athlete’s body must be prepared to meet ever changing demands in high speed environments. The focus of Chiropractic is the optimal performance of the body’s nervous system, your information super highway. Many people think that we are back and neck doctors, but on the contrary we are better described as nerve doctors. The skull and spine protect the central nervous system, but when the individual nerves exit the spine they become vulnerable to most conditions of the body. Our interest in the spine is a simple reflection of making sure this well tuned machine operates at your optimal best. The less interference, whether it be joint fixation, fascial adhesions, nerve entrapments, or otherwise, the better and faster the body can communicate with the brain and improve performance, athletic and otherwise! Balance and agility are areas of visible improvement in athletes as a result of decreasing these problems. (For you techies out there, the chiropractic adjustment stimulates the spinocerebellar tract, which then stimulates the cerebellum (the “small brain” that contains approximately 50% of the brains neurons, responsible for, among many things, balance and equilibrium), which stimulates the lateral vestibular tract, which in turn stimulates the erector spinae muscles along your core that are responsible for maintaining support of spinal structures critical for proper support. (Whew!! Those are big words…but that is neurology for you!)
To gain the advantages chiropractic can provide for athletes, contact us today.
