Chiropractic care is important for athletes in a number of different ways.
1. Enhances Athletic Performance: First of all, most athletes in the professional realm are using chiropractic to enhance performance. For some people, the last thing they do before they take the field or put on their uniform is they see a chiropractor. Many professional sports teams, probably 75% of them, have chiropractors that either travel with the team or meet the team in certain places and get them good chiropractic care.
Chiropractic care is important for the athlete because your nerve system controls and coordinates all the movements and functions of your body. Athletics are just repetitive motions, over and over and a baseball player’s going to swing that bat maybe a hundred times a day, every day and they’re going to keep doing it. These pathways are learned and they are communicated across the nerve system. The faster your nerve system communicates, just like with our internet difference between dial-up internet and now we have these DSL and T1 lines which are much faster, you can get more done and have a more coordinated effort the faster information is flowing across your computer and it is no different in the body.
The master computer, the brain, sends messages down the spinal cord and out the peripheral nerves to the muscles and coordinates these actions beautifully. But if there is static in the line or an interference to that communication, when the bones misalign and pinch or irritate the nerves it creates that static, then it is going to slow down the communication and change the way the body works and the coordination.
Everything is about a lack of ease and with athletes it is getting them into the state where they are not even thinking about the mechanics of their swing; it just flows. When the nerve system is free from interference, that information is free to flow. It is a better mind body connection and these people perform at their highest levels which is absolutely amazing.
2. Helps Athletes Recover from Injury: The other thing chiropractic does is it can help athletes recover from injuries. When someone is hurt, the body’s ability to heal is directly related to how well the nerve system functions. Again, a chiropractor is going to do an assessment and make sure that the spine is in proper alignment so there is nothing impeding the flow of nerve energy. The body’s ability to heal is directly related to how well the nerve system flows because the nerve system controls the immune system and tells the body what to do. The body heals by replacing the damaged cells with healthy new ones and if the nerve system gets those messages out and in a quick, clear and concise manner, the body will start to repair itself and these people will get back to their games more quickly and at a higher level of performance.
3. Helps Prevent Sports Injuries: It is super important to make sure that athletes get proper care to the spine to make sure the spine stays healthy and flexible; the more flexible it is, the better it is going to work. Not only will it help treat the injuries but it also helps prevent them because a spine that is in good alignment has better mechanics and when you have better mechanics, things work smoother, there is less degenerative change, less arthritic changes, so things glide nicely. It is just like tuning up your car and making sure that the front is in good alignment. The better tuned your car, the longer it’s going to last and the better it’s going to perform and the body is just the same.
Chiropractic is really about enhancing the overall function of the nerve system and making sure the spine is in proper alignment. That is going to improve athletic performance, decrease the likelihood of injury and if there is an injury, usually it’ll help people get back into the game quicker. Those are the top three things that a chiropractor can do to help the athlete.
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