One component that is crucial to your health, functioning, and quality of life is physical activity. Although physical activities like recreational and competitive sports are important, they can affect your musculoskeletal and associated neurological systems. Injuries related to the musculoskeletal system are the largest in the class of injuries sustained by athletes.
These systems are structurally responsible for the motion of the body. Chiropractors are experts interested in the function and movement of the muscles, spine, and nervous system. They play important roles in assisting competitive and recreational athletes to improve their performance, as well as to prevent and manage injuries.
What Are Musculoskeletal Sports Injuries?
Musculoskeletal injuries are common as a result of repetitive use of muscle groups or joints and poor adaptation. Ankle and foot injuries remain the most common type of musculoskeletal injury because of the nature of most sports. Other injuries that follow may include:
• Knee injuries
• Low back pain
• Lower extremity tendinopathies
• Neck pain
• Rotator cuff injuries
• Sprains and strains
How Chiropractic Care Helps Athletes?
Regardless of the type of sport you choose to be involved in, there is always a risk of musculoskeletal injury involved. For this reason, it is important for an athlete to see a chiropractor.
Chiropractors are a part of a healthcare team that can help with the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions that are common among athletes. This healthcare team also plays a crucial role in the prevention and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal injuries.
Here are some ways how athletes are helped by chiropractors…
Improved Performance
Every athlete aims to keep improving no matter what level they are at. The bones and muscles must function at their peak so an athlete can break records and set high scores. It is therefore required that joints are free of dysfunction, not restricted in movement, and properly aligned.
The function of your musculoskeletal system can be maximized with the help of a chiropractor. To help you train well, every dysfunction is addressed and all restrictions freed up. Thanks to chiropractic care, your joints will be more flexible and your muscles are able to build more strength when everything is aligned properly.
Reduced Risk Of Injury
The smallest misalignment issues or injuries can stress your body. Stress sometimes leads to more injuries, which is a setback to your aim of improving your fitness level(s). A chiropractor will help so that your musculoskeletal system keeps working properly and injury risk to your body is reduced.
With tailored chiropractic care for athletes, the risk of sports injuries like strains and sprains is reduced. In return, chiropractors provide their patients with care to help maintain an optimal level of performance. It is less likely that you’d injure yourself if your joints can go the full range of motion. This helps to keep you injury-free and healthy.
Improved Overall Wellness
Your overall health and fitness level can be improved when you participate in sports. A chiropractor can also help optimize your overall health.
In instances when you are getting treatment to improve your reaction time or heal from an injury with chiropractic care, the whole process should positively impact your body. You can put more time and energy into improving your skill in the sport(s) you do when you are functioning and feeling better.
Faster Recovery Time
Although it is not possible to eliminate the risk of injuries when doing sports, the chance of getting injured is reduced with regular chiropractic care. Nevertheless, if you develop tendonitis, sprain your ankle, or pull a hamstring, your recovery time can be reduced with the help of a chiropractor. The chiropractic treatment plan for sports injuries varies and is well-rounded.
The care provider focuses on meeting some of your specific needs. Some treatments could make your sports injury worse, but chiropractic won’t do that. With the help of a chiropractor, be assured that you will get the best treatments and at-home tips that will help speed up the recovery process.
Reduced Pain
An important part of the nervous system is your spine. When the spine is manipulated, it relieves the body of the symptoms of pain, while also restoring the optimal flow of the nervous system and healthy alignment of the body. This can all be achieved through chiropractic care, making it a great option for relieving pain and enabling athletes to return to optimal performance.
Non-Invasive And Drug-Free
The use of prescription drugs is not the best option for an athlete with a serious injury; There is the risk of addiction and it does not help to speed up the healing process. Drugs just mask the problem for a little while without getting to the source of the issue. Chiropractic care does not include invasive surgery and painkillers, but it naturally helps an athlete in recovering faster from injury.
Since chiropractic treatment is non-invasive, an athlete can immediately return to action after treatment. However, surgery would require that the body takes time to recover before getting back in action.
Improved Coordination
An athlete is accomplished if he or she has body control and spatial awareness. Proprioceptors, which are the nerve endings in your body’s central nervous system, are important in controlling all your body parts. The condition of the proprioceptors can be improved to help you feel more coordinated and balanced when you perform any sporting activity.
In addition, chiropractic care helps to improve your response time and agility. All these factors are important for athletes like gymnasts, baseball players, football players, and all other activities that require the body to use more energy.
Conclusion
As an athlete, you will likely suffer from injury whether major or minor at some point. Your body is moving as a single piece but is made up of many parts that work together. As an athlete, your performance, muscle coordination, and balance can be improved with chiropractic care. Your body deserves care, and though it is not usually until you are injured before you seek it, it’s best to see a chiropractor regularly, all year long.
